Team USA Track Star Noah Lyles Claims He Doesn’t Know Who Nikola Jokic Is

Team USA track and field star Noah Lyles stated that he didn’t know who three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic is, stating this on “The Nightcap Show.”

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Shannon Sharpe, co-host of Nightcap, asked Lyles whether Jokic was one of the best players in the world.

“I’m going to be honest, I don’t know who that is,” Lyles replied.

This isn’t the first outlandish statement that Lyles has made regarding the NBA and its players, but it’s an even stranger comment to make after the six-time Olympic champ stated that he watched the NBA Finals.

The 2023 NBA finals featured the Miami Heat and the Denver Nuggets, the team that is led by Jokic.

“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,” Lyles said last year. “World champion of what? The United States? Don’t get me wrong, I love the U.S. at times, but that ain’t the world.”

Lyles’ comments are perplexing at best, but at worst, they are rather contradictory. If Lyles watched the NBA Finals, he would inevitably have had to watch the Joker in action, right?

Jokic led Serbia on a historic run in the 2024 Olympics and almost managed to clinch a victory over Team USA in the semifinals. Thus, it’s even more difficult to imagine that Lyles hasn’t heard of Jokic at the national or global level.

However, Lyles didn’t stop there with the snide NBA comments.

The American track star took a jab at Minnesota Timberwolves Anthony Edwards. Lyles felt offended by Adidas inviting him to an event celebrating the release of Edwards’ new shoe, rather than giving the world champion his own shoe deal.

“You want to do what?” Lyle said. “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? No disrespect — the man is an amazing athlete. He is having a heck of a year. I love that they saw the insight to give him a shoe, because they saw that he was going to be big.

“All I’m asking is, ‘How could you not see that for me?'”

It’s unclear whether Lyles’ comments directed at the NBA are some sort of attention-grab or one man’s honest opinion.

Nevertheless, Lyles is eager to solidify himself as the global face of track and field, but it’s evident he isn’t concerned with making friends along the way.