Did Team USA Basketball Get The Last Laugh Over Noah Lyles?

I don’t think it’s hyperbolic to say that this year’s Olympic games in Paris was one of the best. Not only was the competition fierce, but the coverage was unprecedented. Thanks to NBC’s Peacock app, we could follow every sport we desired when we wanted to. With that level of accessibility, we could give attention to all the storylines throughout the games. Heading into the Olympics this year was a big story between Team USA Track & Field Star Noah Lyles and Team USA Basketball. At the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, Lyles claimed that the NBA World Champion was not representative of the world. He said so to add more emphasis on competing against other international teams. His comments began a firestorm that led to our eyes glued to how these entities would perform.

In a vacuum, it looked like the NBA players caught a stray. Their accomplishments were seemingly being diminished. It seemed clear that Lyles was misinformed. He very well may have been out of touch. If you’ve consumed NBA products over the last decade, you know that the NBA is an international league. The best players from across the world play in the NBA, they aren’t competing overseas. So when NBA players win a championship, it is in fact a world championship. The last four MVPs in the NBA were internationally born. Team USA had to defeat a three-time NBA league MVP Nikola Jokic, to make it to the gold medal round. So with these realities being evident, Lyles came off as more of a whiner than anything else.

I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking that Lyles needed to succeed in his performances to help quell the chatter. He succeeded by winning the men’s 100m and becoming the fastest man in the world. It was all good until until the men’s 200m. It was there where Lyles competed while knowing he had COVID. He ended up winning a bronze medal. This happening, brought on a fresh new coat of criticism for Lyles, who made a boisterous introduction to the men’s 200m. It was so over the top that people believed Lyles’ loss to Letsile Tebogo of Botswana was well deserved. It began to feel like Lyles was becoming an annoying gnat.

After Team USA Men’s Basketball gold medal game news also came out about Lyles’ issue with Adidas. It was reported that Lyles didn’t understand the logic of Minnesota Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards getting a more lucrative shoe deal. He claimed that Edwards wasn’t an NBA champion yet, so how would he be seen as a more marketable commodity?

In truth, Adidas only responds to the energy of the people. Anthony Edwards’ personality excites the people. He’s charming, and not seen as annoying in the media. The media loves him. Objectively, this doesn’t seem to be the same for Lyles across the board. However, I wonder if Lyles’ thoughts may change now that Edwards is an Olympic gold medalist.

Team USA Basketball has unequivocally won gold in the hardest international competition in history. It was evident that this team faced tougher competition than 1992’s lauded “Dream Team” in Spain. It’s not a knock on the 1992 squad, it’s more of a tribute. In the last 32 years, the game of basketball has grown exponentially across the world. These teams are no longer pushovers. No, you won’t average beating teams by 38 points anymore. Team USA is the standard of basketball in our world, and the play that they exhibited shows exactly why.

The fellas of USA Basketball have left Paris without scandal and bad press. They never poked the bear that is Noah Lyles. They came in, handled business, and left. Lyles on the other hand, is seemingly looking to make a name for himself. It’s his moment to market himself and get the most out of being on the international stage. In my opinion, he succeeded on the track. But, has he succeeded in making himself more marketable? I’m afraid he has succeeded more in having suitors roll their eyes even more. Can he bounce back? He more than likely can. But as for now, men’s Team USA Basketball gets the last laugh.