Giannis: 'I Totally Agree' with Noah Lyles on NBA 'World Champion' Remarks

American sprinter Noah Lyles received plenty of backlash when he questioned why professional athletes in leagues such as the NBA in the United States called themselves world champions, but at least one star player is on his side.

Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo, who is from Greece, discussed Lyles' comments during an interview with 48 Minutes podcast.

"I wanted to back him up so bad, you know," Antetokounmpo said. "He received so much backlash for saying the, like, obvious."

He went on to point out that "I don't think in any other sport you are called the world champions. You know, like in soccer, which is way bigger than the NBA, more popular than the NBA. When the Champions League, the UEFA Champions League, you know, champions....they don't say the world champion, you know. When they win the World Cup, they play against the USA team, they play against the teams around the world, you know, countries around the world, then they say world champs."

Antetokounmpo also explained that he knows "the NBA is the best league in the world and the talent in the NBA is the best that you will ever see in your life. It's not even close."

He also added that, "you know, I don't say that there's other teams out there that they can beat the Denver Nuggets, for example. I'm not saying that. But you're gonna have to respect, you know, those teams and say yeah, I'm the NBA champ, I'm the VTB champ, I'm the EuroLeague champ, I'm the Greek champ, I'm the Spanish champ, I'm the French league champ."

Lyles comments came after a gold medal-winning performance at the 2023 World Athletics Championships, and he questioned why winners of leagues based almost entirely in the United States would be seen as "world champions."

A number of NBA players, including Kevin Durant, Damian Lillard and Devin Booker, appeared to take issue with the comment:

Yet Antetokounmpo said, "I might get some backlash for this, but I really do not care. I totally agree with him."

Lyles discussed some of the backlash he received during a recent interview with TMZ Sports.

"I do think that the point was lost," he said. "At the end of the day, it was talking about how I see what we do to our national championships—I just want the same thing for our world champions. And we're a sport where we're bringing in the most medals every year—and it's like nobody even knows because they don't pay attention."

There is something to be said about the NBA featuring the majority of the best players in the world, including international stars such as Antetokounmpo, Nikola Jokić, Luka Dončić and 2023 No. 1 overall pick Victor Wembanyama.

That is not always the case in soccer leagues, where stars are spread out across different countries and playing against different competition.

The winner of the NBA Finals is widely seen as the best basketball team in the world for that given season, and there isn't something such as soccer's Champions League where that squad would then have to go up against victors from other countries.

Still, semantically it is hard to argue against Lyles' point.

And Antetokounmpo didn't.