Noah Lyles Threw Jab At Anthony Edwards Before Olympics

USA sprinter Noah Lyles may have been the biggest star of the 2024 Paris Olympics.

However, a major story about Lyles that carried throughout the entirety of the Paris Games was his beef with the NBA and USA Basketball. The 27-year-old from Alexandria, Virginia, made a remark last year about the NBA Finals that didn't sit well with many.

"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 commented in a press conference in 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."

Lyles' statements registered with the NBA's players and fans, and USA Basketball fired back at Lyles once they won gold on Saturday.

But Lyles may have taken the beef a step further prior to the Olympics.

According to Time , Lyles rejected an offer to attend an Adidas shoe release event for Minnesota Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards last year. On top of that, he took a jab at the rising NBA star.

“You want to do what?” Lyles said. “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?’”

Lyles declined the offer prior to signing a contract of his own with Adidas in early 2024. He is still looking for his own signature shoe and said so after winning his gold medal. Edwards' first signature shoe from Adidas is called the 'AE 1' and was the focal point of the event Lyles rejected.

On Sunday, August 4, Lyles won his only gold medal in Paris, coming in first in the men's 100-meter final by beating out Jamaica's Kishane Thompson by five-thousandths of a second.

His only other medal came in the men's 200-meter final, where he finished third with a time of 19.70 seconds. Immediately after this race, Lyles was helped off the track due to exhaustion. His mother later revealed that he was diagnosed with COVID-19 two days prior.

Edwards won his first gold medal in his Olympic debut. He also led the Timberwolves to a 2024 NBA Western Conference Finals appearance after defeating the defending champion Denver Nuggets in seven games in the previous round. The Timberwolves lost to the Dallas Mavericks in five games in the West Finals.

Related: U.S. Sprinter Noah Lyles Loses Race After Staring Down Opponent At Finish Line

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