Stephen A Smith calls Noah Lyles ignorant for his NBA comment

I don’t think anyone “reads” your posts. It’s more like interpreting gibberish.

Um, the answer to this whole argument is in what the “N” stands for in NBA and what the “W” stands for in WA. Close thread. You’re welcome.

Lyles has a point, but it's clearly true that most top basketball players are in the NBA. So it's not far off a WC.

But these basketball players must have some insecurities or massive egos to go off like that. Hah.

Fu*k Stephen A. Smith. I can think of no more arrogant assh*le than him. He doesn't know a damn thing about track!

How about because he actually is a World Champion at something now, and feels the title is disrespected when thrown around casually and incorrectly in other sports

Who is Steven A Smith?

Lyles is 100% correct. It's a darn strange world we currently inhabit when people attempt to dispute a fact.

The Drake curse (and Kim K curse) is real. Jusk ask every european football team he has worn the shirts from.

again...the other point is that there IS a world champion in basketball. They contest it every 4 years. He's right, the NBA specifically doesnt play the world, but the Olympic team does and they are no doubt less competitive than the NBA champs.

I think a subset of them got tweaked when they heard what he said and they were looking at their olympic (world) gold medal on the shelf! This is a guy who insists they use the word "sensational" when talking about him, so i would say he is aware of every word he says to get attention.

ESPN only mentions track and field to speak of controversy. It never promotes T&F in a positive way.

Ok guys. It's been q5 minutes. Time to move along now.

Need to get Track&Field being talked about in media space generally occupied by the NFL, NBA, MLB. Need the talking heads uttering track at least once a week. Stephen A Smith is a start. I also believe this is a calculated move by Lyles. Brilliant.

People have been making similar comments for decades. This is in no way going to increase revenue or funding for track and field.

A lot of folks here are confusing breadth with depth. Yes, track and field does have an authentic 'World Championships' that is theoretically open to all of the world's nations (even though they do not all compete with equal levels of resources and access). Yes, the NBA has only its American-based version (with all due respect to the Toronto Raptors). However, many more people around the world care more about NBA players, teams, and its championship, then they do about the Track and Field World Championships. That is a fact:
What Are The Most Watched Sports In The World? - GWI

Near 200 nations secured TV rights to broadcast the 2023 NBA Finals back home. When someone like Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, or LeBron James visits a foreign nation, there are many more foreign fans and journalists there to greet them, compared to say, a Michael Johnson, Edwin Moses, Mary Decker Slaney, Noah Lyles, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, or some of our other largely faceless contemporary track & field stars (sometimes a Carl Lewis becomes the rare exception). That is unfortunate, but the truth. It is quite likely that many more kids around the world who aspire to athletic greatness dream about coming to the US to play in the NBA, than they do about competing in the World Championships of Track & Field for their particular nation. Simply raging against the winds of media opinion may be self-satisfying, but it doesn't change the fact that what commentators like Stephen A. Smith are saying is valid in its larger point (that NBA basketball attracts and represents the very best of global basketball talent), as opposed to factually incorrect when you simply bean-count which sport has more official national participants at more global venues.

Are you unfamiliar with Kevin Durant? He’s the most insecure of all and the NBA is full of insecure clowns.

I don't understand the controversy. It's literally called the NATIONAL Basketball League.

Who?

Would love to see a 200m duel between Lyles and Gordon for the lulz.