Since the NBA season is still well over a month away, I’ve decided in the meantime, to start a fun new little series on this publication.
I call it ” NBA Drama Review “, and it’s purpose is to go over any TMZ style drama happening in the NBA world, as well as give my rating of the drama’s entertainment value on a scale of 1-10.
Today’s first juicy NBA drama topic to go over, is the US track & field star Noah Lyles versus dang near the entire NBA beef.
Part one: Who is Noah Lyles, and what is the ” World champion ” debate
The average NBA fan reading this might be asking who Noah Lyles is, and if he is related to NBA player, Trey Lyles.
Noah is a track and field superstar setting records for the US national track and field squad, and no he isn’t related to the NBA player, at least not according to what the public knows.
Anyways, this drama stems from the ” NBA world champion ” debate, which is about if we should be referring to the NBA champions as world champs.
Noah had some interesting things to say after winning a 200m sprint last week.
“You know, the thing that hurts me the most is that I have to watch the NBA Finals and they have ‘world champion’ on their head. World champion of what? The United States?”
Noah Lyles
These comments drew obvious heat from the NBA world, here are some of the most notable reactions from around the league.
Part 2: NBA stars respond
Kevin Durant, Aaron Gordon, and a few others had some funny responses to this situation.
” Somebody help this brother “, said the Suns star Forward, Kevin Durant. ” Whatever, i’m smoking buddy in the 200m “, said Nuggets forward, Aaron Gordon.
I could spend all day listing the responses to this drama out, but instead I want to shed light on probably the most controversial response to this situation from the NBA side.
But yet he’s brought more attention to the NBA and what they’re doing. No one’s is talking about track nor him winning the 100m and 200m. So what did he really do?
De’Aaron Fox on X ( formerly Twitter )
This is a controversial take mostly due to the fact that it heavily suggests that Noah is just chasing clout with this statement. This drama proceeded to balloon to the point where even mega celebrities beyond basketball, had begun to chime in on this conversation.
Part 3: Drake???
Even superstar rapper, Drake, had something hot to say about this matter.
“He [Noah Lyles] thought this speech was gonna be so hard in the mirror the night before…now the whole league doesn’t rate u.”
Drake, in response to Noah Lyles
Drake will likely diss Noah in his upcoming album, given the amount of heat he’s bringing.
Part 4: Lyles’ response and my final ratings on the situation
He took shots back at Drake, but more importantly, the entire NBA. He starts his response off pointing out that most of the world likely already thinks this, and that his platform had just made the NBA respond to the sentiment.
“A lot of air balls [laughs]. It’s just a situation where they finally decided to listen”, said Noah. “I’ve been saying—the whole world, truly, has been saying that for years. It’s just this time they paid attention, and had an opinion.” He went on to explain.
Noah Lyles response to the NBA
A pretty simple, and likely true, response to the NBA. The more fun response however, was to Drake.
“There are a bunch of funny things that come from it, like having Drake notice it. Like, Drake, what are you doing here? Go back home. This is an NBA conversation.”
Noah Lyles response to Drake
Telling the second highest selling rapper of all time to ” go home “, is objectively hilarious.
Now, speaking of hilarious, it’s time for me to rate this beef on a scale of 1-10
Solid 7/10:
Yep, that’s my rating, and here’s why. Without getting too political, this beef definitely can be seen by some, as another case of American exceptionalism. It can also be defined as NBA players simply defending their honor as the world’s best basketball league.
The emotion from the NBA side makes even more sense now, given the recent US defeat in the 2023 FIBA semi-finals versus germany.
Either way, as fun and maybe even insightful as this was, I think Noah’s very measured response to the NBA stars, killed the memeability of this situation.
I say this, because while his response was the right one from a PR perspective, it was very professional and mature.
While we encourage maturity here at WSH, maturity usually doesn’t translate well into funny content. Sometimes you have to go low, when the drama gets high.
