Noah Lyles reacts to USA men's basketball winning Olympic gold medal: 'They saw how difficult it is'

In August 2023, American sprinter Noah Lyles turned countless NBA fans into his enemies. The Olympic star criticized NBA teams for calling themselves world champions after winning the NBA Finals.

“You know what hurts me the most is that I have to watch the NBA Finals and they have ‘world champion’ on their head. World champion of what? The United States?” Lyles said. “Don’t get me wrong. I love the U.S. — at times — but that ain’t the world.

“That is not the world. We are the world. We have almost every country out here fighting, thriving, putting on their flag to show that they are represented. There ain’t no flags in the NBA. We gotta do more. We gotta be presented to the world.”

Lyles’ comments sparked a whirlwind on social media, with hundreds of fans claiming NBA teams had the right to call themselves world champions because the league boasts the best basketball talent on Earth. However, Lyles didn’t back down from his stance.

Now, there is no debate. On Saturday, Team USA defeated France 98-87 in the Paris Olympics to secure a gold medal. Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry led the Americans, tallying a team-high 24 points while shooting 8-13 from beyond the arc.

Curry hit four of his threes in the final three minutes of the game to squash any potential for a French comeback. Curry wasn’t the lone star for Team USA. LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Devin Booker combined for 44 points in the victory, as well.

On Sunday, Noah Lyles addressed Team USA’s victory and reflected on his previous controversial take.

“It’s not a thing of I consider now, it’s ‘They are.’ They’re Olympic champions,” Lyles said. “The Olympic champions — you face the whole world, and they saw how difficult it is. And of course, they came out on top. And of course, I knew they would because we have some of the greatest athletes. But, they saw you can’t just slap everybody together and say, ‘This is a great team.’

“There’s a ton of countries out there who say, ‘Hey, We’re not lying down just because we don’t play in the NBA. We have cohesion. We have our own way of playing the game, and there was a lot of close calls. But again, like myself, I have confidence in the US basketball teams that they were going to make it all the way.

“They were playing, Serbia a few nights ago, and they were down probably like 10, 15, points, and my coach was like, ‘Oh, they’re in trouble now.’ I said, ‘How close is it?’ ‘It’s like 15 points.’ ‘Nah, they’re gonna win.'”