Noah Lyles Trolls USA Basketball After World Cup Loss in Deleted Twitter Post

After American sprinter Noah Lyles said in August that NBA title winners should not call themselves "world champions," he received pushback from players including Kevin Durant, Damian Lillard, Draymond Green and Devin Booker.

Lyles shared his comeback Friday after Team USA was upset 113-111 by Germany in the FIBA World Cup semifinals.

The U.S. sprinter reposted on X, formerly Twitter, a post combining the game's final score with an image of Lyles saying, "World champion of what?"

Lyles has since deleted the repost.

Lyles also liked a different post commenting on the semifinals score.

Lyles' original comments came after he won the 100m and 200m events at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, making him the first male sprinter to win both races since Usain Bolt.

When asked about the difficulty of winning a world title in track and field, Lyles described the World Athletics Championships as a comparatively more global competition than the NBA Finals.

"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. "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. That is not the world. We are the world. We have almost every country out here fighting, thriving, putting on their flag to show that they are represented. There ain't no flags in the NBA."

For now, Team USA will now remain without a FIBA World Cup title. This year's roster featured no All-NBA players and no players with previous Olympic or FIBA World Cup experience, per NBC Sports.

The FIBA World Cup team will have one more chance to medal Sunday when it battles Canada for bronze.