Track star Noah Lyles has fired back at Drake for joining in on the criticism of his comments on the NBA Finals not being comparable to world championships in other sports. Drake was one of many voices to disagree with the opinion publically, following numerous NBA players. Lyles addressed the rapper during a new interview with TMZ.
“I do think that the point was lost,” Lyles admitted while discussing his original comments, which he says he still stands by. “At the end of the day, it was talking about how I see what we do to our national championships — 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.” When TMZ brought up Drake's response, he remarked, “Just go home, buddy. Go home.”
Noah Lyles At The World Athletics Championships
As for Lyles' controversial take, he argued at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest: “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? Don’t get me wrong, I love the US at times. But that ain’t the world … There ain’t no flags in the NBA.”
Noah Lyles On "World Champions" Stance
When DJ Akademiks shared the remarks on Instagram, Drake commented: "He thought this speech was gonna be so hard in the mirror the night before… now the whole league doesn’t rate u." Kevin Durant, Aaron Gordon, Devin Booker, Damian Lillard, and many other NBA players spoke up to disagree with Lyles as well. They argued that the NBA brings in the best of the best from the entire world and thus counts as the same.
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