Lyles: American Backstabber
Mike Leitao ~ 08/12/2024
The Olympics wrapped up this past weekend with America and China tying for the lead in golds, but America absolutely smoked the competition in silvers, bronzes, and total medals. So, I think we can all agree that America has once again dominated the Olympics. And I hear the foreigners cry “well America sends more athletes than other countries so of course they win more medals” and my simple response to that is shut up and maybe start breeding some better athletes. Also, if America got a portion of all the medals won by other countries who come to America to train, shit would be embarrassing for other countries, so I do not want to hear it. Among the winners of gold medals for America were the men’s basketball team winning gold over France, and Noah Lyles who won gold in the men’s 100 meter. In this time of victory for America you would expect all the winners to be celebrating together, right? Nope, instead Noah Lyles continues to act like he is a god among men and is better than everyone else, namely for some odd reason, the NBA and its players.
In 2023, Noah Lyles won gold in the 100-, 200-, and 400-meter races at the World Athletics Championships. He then celebrated his accomplishment of clean sweeping and being named a world champion by instantly shitting on the NBA for calling their champions “World Champions” with the now seemingly famous quote “World Champions of What? The United States?” Although his comments garnered some criticism there was truthfully nowhere near enough when you really think about how idiotic of a comment that really was. Of course, Lyles was also lucky that the America team for the 2023 World Cup finished in a disappointing 4th place which just made more people agree with his point. Let’s quickly use a quarter of our brain to analyze why his take is absolute dog shit. Firstly, the American team for the World Cup in 2023 was made up of virtually no all-star level talent and was mostly role players at the time. Only two players from the World Cup team made it on the Olympic roster and only one of them actually played any real minutes.
To look at the World Cup team and to think that it is actually an accurate representation of the state of basketball in America, is so braindead it’s shocking that some people actually came to that conclusion. But even if, for some reason, that was an accurate representation of American basketball, it would still not have any impact on Lyles original claim. To say that the NBA champions should not be considered World Champions, but the Champions of the United States is insane for the simple fact that THERE ARE A SHIT TON OF INTERNATIONAL PLAYERS IN THE NBA. Although Joel Embiid has American citizenship, if we exclude him there has not been an American MVP since the 17-18 season when James Harden won it. The reason the NBA champions are world champions is because the top talent from all over the world come to play in the NBA.
Yes, there are talented foreign players playing in different leagues all around the world who probably are better than current NBA players, so the NBA is not a perfect representation of the world of basketball, but it's pretty damn close. Just because they are not on a global stage and broken out by country does not mean that the champions aren’t world champs. The most recent NBA Champions had a starting player who contributed from Latvia, the team who won the year before has their star player who is from Serbia. The team who won before them may have been primarily American, but they had important help from a Canadian role player. The international basketball scene is stronger now than it has ever been, and it only makes it make even more sense for the NBA champions to be the World Champions of basketball.
After the men's team won gold at the Olympics it seemed everything around this whole World Champions thing was done and forgotten. But then, Noah Lyles got invited by Adias (who is a sponsor for him) to an event for another high ranking Adias athlete Anthony Edwards. Anthony Edwards, who is slowly moving in as a potential face of the NBA is getting a shoe release and Adias thought so highly of Lyles that they invited him to the event. Of course, Lyles responded how you would expect someone so full of themselves to respond by once again acting like he is a walking god and everyone else is nothing compared to him.
Edwards has played in four total seasons in the NBA, has been a two-time all-star, and has made the All-NBA second team. He also just helped lead his team to the western conference finals. So for Noah Lyles to describe Edwards as “A man who has not even been to an NBA Finals” is just outright disrespectful. I understand he wants his own signature shoe but the way to get that is not to drag down another athlete, especially not one who is also sponsored by the company who sponsors you. And when you wonder why they are giving Edwards a shoe and not you, just look at the obvious. The NBA is bigger than the world of track, Edwards is 23 and becoming a face of the league compared to Lyles who is 27 and, for track, coming out of his prime, Edwards himself is a larger athlete who has 4 million followers on Instagram compared to Lyles 1.5 million, and arguably most importantly, Edwards is a much better face for the brand than Lyles because people actually like Edwards since he is a likable dude and not an asshole like Lyles. Luckily, the backlash for this is much more in line for what is deserved… Which warms my heart.
Lyles is an incredible athlete and one of the fastest people currently on planet Earth. He is a multi-time world champion and has done some amazing things on the track (most recently getting a bronze medal in the 200-meter while suffering from Covid). It is unfortunate that when it is all said and done, no one will remember him for these accomplishments but will instead remember him as the egotistical runner who found a way to shit talk others (especially the NBA) whenever he could instead of celebrating his own work. There is a fine line to walk between confidence and aura, and egotistical and cocky, and Lyles is a clear example of what can happen to an athlete no matter how talented they are when they choose to disregard the line.
