Giannis Antetokounmpo backs Noah Lyles: "I wanted to back him up so bad. He received so much backlash for stating the obvious."

Giannis must be ignorant as they do have world champions in other sports.

USA no medal 2023 World Cup, who would have thought that given their championship league. Yes, I know many of the top players did not go.

So the big question is - why didn't he?

Lyles mentioned the NBA specifically in his comment. Giannis is addressing the comment that was directed at the league he represents. He doesn't need to attack other leagues to get his point across. That's not ignorance, that's intelligent communication.

1. You could probably learn some lessons from him.

2. An NBA superstar defends the comment made by a track athlete, on a running-based message board, and the basketball playing is getting criticized? Some people are just desperate to create hate.

Giannis said “I don’t think in any other sport you’re called the world champions.”
I pointed out that many other sports have world champions. It is sad they you’re not able to understand how Giannis sounds ignorant, probably because you and he share this trait.

Reminds me of the WBC earlier this year. Team USA had 4 MVPs and 21 all-stars (Trout, Betts, Goldschmidt, & Kershaw among them) and they still lost to Japan.

I know this site isn't big on context, but here's the full interview with time stamps provided for those who care.

Interesting that Giannis self-identies as more Nigerian and African than Greek even though he was born in Greece and represents them.

Because he only found out who Lyles was after his comments became popular in the sporting press. Before that he never heard of him.

Giannis is such a puhssy. Stop biting your tongue bro

Good for you Giannis, 100%

The irony of calling others ignorant while being totally unable to infer the obvious meaning of what Giannis said...

1. Lyles was right- they're the NBA Champions and sound like whiney teenage girls complaining.

2. His point was actually that WA and USATF don't market the athletes properly- which is something I've been saying on this message board for years.

If you actually paid attention to the World Championships you would have seen athletes from 200+ countries.

Burkina Faso won a medal. Most Americans don't even know that is a nation.

Somebody needed to wake them up. They're NBA stars not World Champions.

Coaching mistakes. It was a poorly constructed roster. E squad level players with no real centers or big men, and a switching scheme on defense that made it easy for opponents.

Next year's squad will be STACKED. Will have one maybe two players from this year's roster (Mikal, then maybe Ant Edwards/JJJ). It won't be easy for next year's squad and any team can lose one game of basketball. But next year's roster and result will be quite different

If Giannis is having trouble accepting that the USA is the greatest nation on this planet he can always buy out his contract, pack his bags and fly back to Greece South Macedonia.

We don't need no haters tearing down the great institution that is the NBA. If I was a team owner I'd demand 'no-slander' clauses in all future contracts.

One, that's not true. He has consistently said that he is both. Two, that topic has nothing whatsoever to do with this conversation.

The one that gets me is the Crossfit people claiming they're "fittest in the world." I figure I could outrun some of them (and I'm over 40), and even if you accept their definition of fitness, their membership is so limited. The vast majority of competitors are from a few white English-speaking countries.

When you win the Tour de France, you don't even get described as the best cyclist in the world.