At this point, the sage between NBA players and Team USA Olympic runner Noah Lyles has come to even more of a head.
More news: Team USA Basketball Seems to Shade Noah Lyles on Social Media Following Gold Medal Win
After Lyles made comments regarding the NBA championship at the 2023 World Athletics Championship in Budapest, multiple members of the NBA came for him.
“You know the thing that hurts me the most is that I have to watch the NBA Finals and they have ‘world champion’ on they head,” Lyles said. “World champion of what? The United States? Don’t get me wrong, I love the US – at times – but that ain’t the world.”
Photo by Elsa/Getty Images
This started a beef that has continued to the present day. After the Team USA men’s National team won the gold medal on Saturday, the social media account threw some shade at Lyles.
The account shared a photo on social media of the team standing together on the Olympic pedestal, with the caption of “Are we the World Champs now?”.
This led to all sorts of reactions about basketball circles but isn’t the end of the story.
According to Time, while Lyles was negotiating a contract with Adidas last year, the company offered him an invite to a shoe release for Minnesota Timberwolves star guard, Anthony Edwards. Lyles seemed to take offense to the offer considering he was a world champ and Edwards wasn’t.
“You want to do what?” says Lyles. “You want to invite me to [an event for] a man who has not even been to an NBA Finals? In a sport that you don’t even care about? And you’re giving him a shoe? No disrespect: the man is an amazing athlete. He is having a heck of a year. I love that they saw the insight to give him a shoe, because they saw that he was going to be big. All I’m asking is, ‘How could you not see that for me?'”
Lyles ended up signing a new deal with the company. Lyles did compliment Edwards in his comment but his overall response is telling. Even this year at the Olympics, Team USA guard Devin Booker supported Lyles in his men’s 100-meter final despite all the drama.
“The statement was said,” Booker said. “I think how it was said — you know, it was just out of context. I feel like it was something that was weighing on his heart for a long time. He’s gained a following since then. He held it down, though, so congrats to him.”
More news: Suns’ Devin Booker Fires Back at Idea Winning Gold Medal is Harder Than NBA Title
It seemed that this drama may have been dying down but the USA Basketball social media post has kept it alive. These comments from Lyles don’t help either so we may see more twists and turns from this moving forward.
