Editor’s Note: The following article is a column and the views expressed are those of the creator. Read more opinions on Grio.

I learned that America was special at a young age, long before highschool. There was the United States, a nation without bad things, and behind it were all the opposite countries. Despite the treatment of Native Americans and Mexicans, kidnapped Africans, and immigrants from Ireland and Italy within the late 1800s (before they were granted white privilege), we were primary! That’s what the textbook said.

As an avid sports fan as a baby, I never questioned the concept American exceptionalism. We were clearly the bomb in a geopolitical sense. But the NBA and NFL confused me through the use of the term “world champions” to explain their winners. Major League Baseball, in its most conceited way, went further, calling its championship the “World Series.”

As a young guy, I assumed we were stumbling. Team USA sprinter Noah Lyles still feels that way as a 27-year-old Olympic gold medalist.

I understand what Lyles meant when he said“What hurts me the most is that I have to watch the NBA Finals, and they have the “world champion” on their hands. The “world champion” of WHAT? The United States?”

He made this remark last summer in Hungary, where he won three gold medals on the World Athletics Championships, wherein over 2,000 athletes took part 195 countries“We have almost every country fighting, developing, putting up a flag to show they are represented,” he said. “There are no flags in the NBA.”

His argument relies on facts, not opinions.

Even if critics are convinced that our championship teams will beat everyone, it’s pure speculation. There isn’t any solution to prove it. But that has not stopped NBA stars from empathizing with their feelings“Someone help this brother” – Kevin Durant Published last August. NFL star Tyreek Hill also took offense and weighed in on Monday.

“For him to say we’re not world champions in our sport is like, ‘Oh, man,’” Hill said. he said from the training camp“Just talk about what you know, and that’s the track.” Hill, arguably the fastest player within the NFL, also said, “I could beat Noah Lyles” in a race.

Lyles could be a wise alternative, just as smart alecks would bet the NBA champion Boston Celtics against any international team. In football, the NFL champion Kansas City Chiefs may very well be 11-touchdown favorites against a foreign opponent.

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But these leagues, just like the United States, are still conceited as hell. “World champion” is literally a figure of speech in our two hottest sports. We get it. Lyles thinks track and field athletes don’t understand their props, and he’s going to vary that along with his nimble feet and loud mouth. The latter recently stirred up more controversy in a Time magazine article. Lyles reportedly made off-color remarks about NBA superstar Anthony Edwards while Adidas was planning a shoe launch party.

“You want to invite me to (a party) for a guy who wasn’t even in the NBA Finals? In a sport you’re not even interested in? And you give him the boot? I love that they saw that they should give him the boot because they saw that he was going to be great.” Lyles said“I’m just asking, ‘How could you not notice?’

Lyles signed extension of the contract with Adidas in February, reportedly the richest track and field deal since Usain Bolt retired. With World Championship and Olympic performances – boosted by a star-making role in Netflix Documentary Series “Sprint” (Highly Recommended) – Lyles is already being recognized because the face of men’s track.

It’s a shame so many individuals hate him.

Hill accused the sprinter of pretending to be sick when Lyles finished third within the 200-meter dash on the Olympics and said he had COVID. Earlier, after Lyles won the 100-meter dash by five thousandths of a second, NFL linebacker Zaire Franklin he tweeted “Noah Lyles is my least favorite American. Good morning.” USA Basketball lashed out after winning Olympic gold against France. “Are we world champions now?” the caption reads social media post.

Funny, but I do not remember them asking that after Germany finished FOURTH on the 2023 FIBA ​​Basketball World Cup.

There really was no need for sportsmen to be overly sensitive to Lyles’ claim that the North American sports leagues were “world champions.” Few, if any, people seriously query whether the NBA and NFL title winners are the most effective teams on Earth. Lyles is solely attempting to elevate his sport, and he craves attention like a moth craves a flame. He forged a shadow by specializing in technicalities, fully aware that the track is built on nations—not leagues—and that the U.S. champions don’t get the crown until they’ve defeated international competition.

That doesn’t change the fact for our top athletes who can afford to disregard the formality of fact. They should calm down and follow the instance of New York Knicks star Josh Hart after Lyles’ good 100-meter dash in Paris.

“He is an Olympic gold medalist” Hart wrote on Twitter“He can talk his whole life.”

Probably yes.