It has been a few weeks since the 6-time World Champion Noah Lyles called the NBA out for deeming their winners “World Champions”. After winning 3 gold medals at the 2023 World Athletics Championships, Lyles questioned the NBA, “World Champion of what? The United States?” Following the American sprinter’s comments, Team USA suffered an embarrassing loss against Canada in the 2023 FIBA World Cup. Team USA’s World Cup exit gave more weight to Noah Lyles’ comments.

The World Champion doubled down as he revealed how the narrative behind his comments was twisted. Lyles’ comments were supposed to unfold the sad truth of the athletics world, and he slammed Drake for trolling without context.

Noah Lyles reveals the sad truth behind his “World Champion” comment

In an interview with TMZ Sports, Noah Lyles refused to back down from the comments he made a few weeks ago. He believes his comments were taken out of context and blown out of proportion, “I do think that the point was lost.” The 6-time World Champion wanted to reveal to the world how his sport does not get enough attention from the fans even though American athletes bring home multiple gold medals in every competition.

“I just want the same thing for our world champions. And we’re a sport where we’re bringing in the most medals every year — and it’s like nobody even knows because they don’t pay attention.” Noah added. That is the harsh reality that American athletics is facing. Even though Lyles won 3 gold medals at the 2023 event, he gained more popularity from his comments about the NBA than his World Championship victory.

Noah Lyles slams Drake for his comments

After Lyles made his NBA comments, several NBA stars responded on social media to defend the league. The World Champion was heavily trolled despite winning 3 gold medals for his country. Even Grammy Award-winning artist Drake responded to Lyles’ comments, “He thought this speech was gonna be so hard in the mirror the night before…now the whole league doesn’t rate u.”

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In the interview, Lyles broke his silence about Drake’s comments with just a few words, “Just go home, buddy. Go Home.” Lyles did not pay much attention to Drake’s comments and refused to give him more air time.

Now that the dust has started to settle on the Noah Lyles-NBA saga, it is becoming clearer what the real issue was. The World Champion’s comments were not to disrespect the NBA but to garner more respect and attention for his sport. As Team USA failed to win the Gold medal at the 2023 FIBA World Cup, world-class athletes like Noah Lyles are making the USA proud by winning multiple World Championships.

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