Josh Hart couldn’t hide his disdain for Men’s 100m Olympic Gold medal winner Noah Lyles while on his podcast with Jalen Brunson, revealing that he wanted Lyles to lose the race despite him representing Team USA. Hart did admit that Lyles’ performance in the 100m was impressive enough for Hart to switch from a hater and give his respect.
“I feel like, for most of these Olympics, I was really patriotic. I wanted Team USA to win Gold at almost every event… I really wanted him to lose. I think it was the first time all of NBA Twitter got together and was just hating. I was hating, but now it’s respect, I can’t even hate anymore.”
“I really wanted him to lose.” 😅
– Josh Hart on Noah Lyles
(Via @Roommates__Show / https://t.co/rgqcqEELxR) pic.twitter.com/R5UUQ9HPHB
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) August 15, 2024
Lyles’ comments after the 2023 FIBA World Cup about the NBA Champions not being the same as World Champions has been hurting many players in the league, as everyone has been banding together to hate on Lyles since last year. Team USA even attended the 100m sprint and watched Lyles do what he did.
Devin Booker openly gave Lyles his props after his Gold medal performance, but made it clear that he still disagrees with what the sprinter said about the NBA.
The basketball team winning Gold led to Lyles admitting that they’re Olympic Champions who beat the best teams in the world to earn that title. While more fans continue debating the difference between Olympic and World Champion, it seems the players and athletes involved in this beef are going to move past it. Maybe except for Anthony Edwards due to recent reports of beef between him and Lyles over Edwards’ signature sneaker.
Giannis Antetokounmpo Agreed With Noah Lyles’ World Champions Take
For what it’s worth, the take that Lyles has been so heavily demonized for is one that players and coaches within the NBA subscribe to. Giannis Antetokounmpo was arguably the biggest name to support what Lyles had to say, expressing the same during an interview last summer after the controversy had just started.
“I wanted to back him up so bad. He received so much backlash for saying the obvious. I think some people don’t understand it. Maybe it’s an arrogance thing,” Giannis began. “I don’t think in any other sport you’re called the world champions. In soccer, which is way bigger than the NBA and more popular than the NBA, the UEFA Champions League champions don’t say they’re world champions.”
Coaches like Gregg Popovich have previously gone against the practice of calling the NBA Champions ‘World’ champions as well, and that is a former Team USA coach himself. It’s not a practice internationally to call the winners of a national league the world champions, even if that league is undoubtedly the best league in the world.
With the NBA considering a possible matchup with the EuroLeague Champions to have an unofficial World Championship battle, we might soon move into a situation where Lyles’ comments caused the league to make a structural change because of the negative perception created worldwide by what Lyles said.
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