Noah Lyles has done it! He earned the right to call himself ‘World Champion’ as the Track & Field athlete secured gold in the 2024 Paris Olympics. The 27-year-old left his competition in the dust with his 9.79-second sprint and earned himself ‘the title’ a sprinter dreams of having. “I was always the fastest man in the world,” he said after his 100-meter win. “Now I just got the medals to prove it!” Lyles’ win had already sparked massive jubilation from the Track and Field community, as they wasted no time and started throwing jibes at the hoops community who ridiculed the gold medalist sprinter after his controversial comments last year.

But now those same NBA players who responded to him publicly with taunts, are teammates of Noah Lyles thanks to their Team USA representation on the Olympic stage. Joel Embiid and Jayson Tatum were in attendance to witness the win but a viral video on social media indicates, there might be some bad blood between Lyles and the NBA stars, especially Embiid. That’s because the Sixer was seen leaving the stadium. Shockingly, he was seen walking past the athlete’s joyous mother, without saying a word.

She rushed down the stairs to celebrate, while The Process was quietly climbing up with a few others! Jayson Tatum was also in attendance and even shared footage from the previous event via his Instagram story. The 26-year-old is fresh off his NBA Championship win with the Cs. So for Tatum, Lyles’ past ‘World Champion’ comments, might sting in particular.

For Embiid to ignore Lyles’ mother was not a good look on Team USA Basketball. Keisha Caine, Noah’s mother, raised him as a single mother since Lyles was 13. She even saw days when she was unable to afford a shoe for the aspiring runner. So, for her, this moment of Lyles’ success is a culmination of years of struggle and perseverance. The gold medalist also understood the magnitude of his feat and waved at his mother as she made her way closer to Lyles.

Probably it’d have been appropriate courtesy for Joel Embiid to stop and wish Keisha on her son’s triumph. Since he didn’t, many will easily assume that Team USA’s players are yet to digest Noah’s comments, or are they?

Noah Lyles “helped” himself and won a Gold medal, looking back at his ‘beef’ with NBA stars

“You know the thing that hurts me the most is that I have to watch the NBA Finals and they have ‘world champion’ on their head,” Lyles said in August 2023. “World champion of what? The United States? Don’t get me wrong, I love the U.S. at times, but that ain’t the world. We are the world. We have almost every country out here fighting, thriving, putting on their flag to show they are represented. There ain’t no flags in the NBA. We gotta do more. We gotta be presented to the world.”

Since then, Noah Lyles has been mocked for his comments.

Embiid and Tatum did not come out to comment on that publicly, but their teammate, Kevin Durant, did. In an Instagram post, Durant wrote, “Somebody help this brother,” to which numerous NBA pros voiced their support in disagreement with Noah Lyles. Current Team USA player Devin Booker also reacted to the post with a ‘facepalm emoji’ along with other big names of the league.

It won’t be an overstatement that the backlash from the NBA community helped Noah Lyles make a name for himself among the global audience. The athlete even admitted in during an interview with Fox Sports. “This was the time it actually picked up traction, which was never the actual goal. The question was talking about how the sport views us in the U.S., and how does that feel.”

“So, talking about it sucks, all that. Then, all the sudden, the example becomes the main thing,” Lyles said about the reaction he received. But that’s history now. For Noah, it’s time for a celebration with his loved ones. And if Team USA Basketball wants no part, so be it!

And to absorb more interesting stories, watch the Dual Threat Show hosted by BG12 where the prodigy puts Bulldogs star Silas Demary Jr under the pump with loaded NBA questions and more in this video below.