Noah Lyles, of the United States, celebrates after winning the men’s 100-meter final at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024, in Saint-Denis, France. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

OPINION: Technically, Lyles is correct about presumptuous America and “world champions,” but mainstream sports stars needn’t be so sensitive.

Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.

I learned that America was exceptional at an early age, way before high school. There was the United States, nation of no wrongs, followed by every other country. Despite the treatment of Native Americans and Mexicans, kidnapped Africans and late-19th-century immigrants from Ireland and Italy (before they were granted white privilege), we were No. 1! It said so right in the textbook.

As an avid sports fan during childhood, I didn’t question the concept of American exceptionalism. We clearly were the bomb in a geo-political sense. But the NBA and NFL bemused me by using “world champions” to describe their title winners. Major League Baseball, presumptuous to the max, went further by calling its championship the “World Series.” 

As a young’un, I thought we were tripping. Team USA sprinter Noah Lyles still feels that way as a 27-year-old Olympic gold medalist.

I understand where Lyles was coming from when he said, “The thing that hurts me the most is I have to watch the NBA Finals and they have ‘world champion’ on their head. ‘World champion’ of WHAT? The United States?” 

He made the remark last summer in Hungary, where he won three gold medals at track’s World Championships, which featured over 2,000 athletes repping 195 nations. “We have almost every country out here fighting, thriving, putting on their flag to show that they are represented,” he said. “There ain’t no flags in the NBA.”

He has a point based on fact, not opinion. 

Even if critics firmly believe that our championship teams would defeat all comers, that’s pure speculation. There’s no way to prove it. But that didn’t stop NBA stars from getting in their feelings. “Somebody help this brother,” Kevin Durant posted last August. NFL star wideout Tyreek Hill also took offense and chimed in on Monday. 

“For him to say that we’re not world champions of our sport, it’s like ‘C’mon bruh,’” Hill said from training camp. “Just speak on what you know about, and that’s track.” Hill, arguably the NFL’s fastest player, also said, “I would beat Noah Lyles” in a race.

The smart money would be on Lyles, just like wiseguys would back the NBA champion Boston Celtics against any international team. In football, the NFL champion Kansas City Chiefs might be favored by 11 touchdowns against a foreign opponent.  

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But those leagues, like the United States, are still arrogant AF. “World champion” is literally a figure of speech in our two most popular sports. We get it. Lyles believes track athletes don’t get their props and he aims to change that with his fleet feet and loud mouth. The latter caused more controversy recently in a Time Magazine article. Lyles reportedly spoke sideways about NBA superstar Anthony Edwards as Adidas was planning a shoe-release party.

“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? I love that they saw the insight to give him a shoe because they saw that he was going to be big,” Lyles said. “All I’m asking is, ‘How could you not see that for me?”

Lyles signed a contract extension with Adidas in February, reportedly the richest track & field deal since Usain Bolt retired. With his performance at the World Championships and Olympics – boosted by a star turn in the Netflix docuseries “Sprint” (which I highly recommend) – Lyles is entrenched as the face of men’s track.

Too bad he’s loathed by so many. 

Hill accused the sprinter of faking illness when Lyles finished third in the Olympic 200 meters and said he had COVID. Earlier, after Lyles won the 100 meters by five-thousandths of a second, NFL linebacker Zaire Franklin tweeted “Noah Lyles is my least favorite American. Good morning.” USA Basketball took a swipe after winning the Olympic gold medal against France. “Are we the world champs now?” read the caption on a social media post. 

Funny, but I don’t remember them asking after they finished FOURTH at the 2023 Basketball World Cup, won by Germany.

There really wasn’t any need for athletes’ super-sensitivity over Lyles’ contention about “world champions” from North American sports leagues. Few, if any, people seriously question whether NBA and NFL title winners are the best such teams on Earth. Lyles simply seeks to elevate his sport, and he craves attention like a moth covets flames. He threw shade centered on a technicality, fully aware that track is based on nations — not leagues — and U.S. champs don’t don the biggest crown unless they defeat international competitors. 

That doesn’t change the reality for our mainstream athletes, who can afford to brush off the fact-based formality. They should chill and follow the lead of New York Knicks star Josh Hart after Lyles’ scintillating 100-meter dash in Paris.

“He’s an Olympic gold medalist,” Hart tweeted. “He can talk for life.”

He probably will.

Deron Snyder, from Brooklyn, is an award-winning columnist who lives near D.C. and pledged Alpha at HU-You Know! He’s reaching high, lying low, moving on, pushing off, keeping up, and throwing down. Got it? Get more at blackdoorventures.com/deron.