Stephen A. Smith slams ‘flagrantly ignorant’ Noah Lyles comments

ESPN pundit Stephen A. Smith has slammed US monitor and subject star Noah Lyles after his feedback about NBA title winners.

The sprinter, 26, questioned why hoops stars seek advice from themselves as “world champions” after successful a championship although the NBA is a home league.

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“You know what hurts me the most is that I have to watch the NBA Finals and they have ‘world champion’ on their head,” Lyles mentioned after successful three gold medals on the 2023 World Championships.

“World champion of what? The United States?”

Plenty of NBA stars, together with Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, and Damian Lillard, publicly criticised Lyles for the comment.

And Stephen A. took their aspect on Monday’s First Take.

First, the sportscaster congratulated Lyles for his victory in each the 100-meter and 200-meter sprint in addition to the 4×100-meter relay in Budapest, Hungary, the place the event happened.

“I’m sure he’s a good brother and a whole bit,” the ESPN star continued.

“He just came across as flagrantly ignorant – and that needs to be said.”

To justify his viewpoint, Smith identified {that a} overwhelming majority of NBA superstars – reminiscent of Nikola Jokic, Luka Doncic, and Giannis Antetokounmpo – at the moment come from outdoors of the US.

He then introduced up a press launch from October 2022 that mentioned the NBA featured 120 gamers from 40 international locations and 6 continents between the 30 groups on the time.

Stephen A. added the quantity has elevated since then, making up almost a 3rd of the league.

“So how is that not global?” the First Take star requested.

“How is that not the world champion?”

Smith added: “One could easily argue that NBA players compete more against international competition than he (Lyles) does.”

Lyles claimed the gold within the 100m forward of Letsile Tebogo of Botswana and Zharnell Hughes of Great Britain and Northern Ireland whereas fellow American Christian Coleman got here in fifth.

In the 200-meter rush, two USA sprinters joined him within the last prime 5 with Erriyon Knighton scooping the silver and Kenneth Bednarek ending fifth.

This story first appeared in The US Sun and was republished with permission.