United States track star Noah Lyles earned an avalanche of media attention for refusing to call NBA champions “world champions” during comments made in 2023. As his “world Champion of what” remark gained new life during the 2024 Paris Olympics, another comment Lyles made about an NBA star has received new life — and it caused Lyles to clarify his remarks on Monday.
After the U.S. men’s basketball team won gold in Paris, an interview he did with TIME magazine re-surfaced where he takes a swipe at Minnesota Timberwolves superstar guard Anthony Edwards. Lyles essentially questioned why Adidas would unveil a new shoe for Edwards and not give him the same respect.
When Lyles was negotiating an Adidas contract extension last year, the company, he says, threw him what it thought was a bone. Adidas invited him to the shoe-release event for Anthony Edwards, the rising Minnesota Timberwolves star who’s got plenty of talent but, unlike Lyles, isn’t a six-time world champ. “You want to do what?” says Lyles. “You want to invite me to [an event for] a man who has not even been to an NBA Finals? In a sport that you don’t even care about? And you’re giving him a shoe? No disrespect: the man is an amazing athlete. He is having a heck of a year. I love that they saw the insight to give him a shoe, because they saw that he was going to be big. All I’m asking is, ‘How could you not see that for me?’” (Adidas declined to comment; in February, Lyles signed a new deal with the company, reportedly the most lucrative track-and-field contract in the post-Bolt era.)
Lyles took to social media to refute the report, saying that he didn’t go to Edwards’ shoe event because he had a prior engagement.
There is a rumor going around that I did not go to @theantedwards_ shoe release because he didn’t deserve it. That is not the case he definitely deserves his shoes he is an amazing player. The problem was finding time based on my prior engagements.
Congratulations on Becoming an…— Noah Lyles, OLY (@LylesNoah) August 12, 2024
Lyles was under immense pressure after the “world champion of what” comments, and for the most part he backed it up. He won gold in the 100m dash, making him the fastest man on Earth, but only got bronze in the 200m dash (Lyles tested positive for COVID-19 before the race). However, it can be said that those same comments helped put the US Men’s basketball team together in the first place.
This beef between Lyles and the NBA won’t be going away anytime soon.