Noah Lyles is making headlines yet again for a championship other than his own.
“We’re here, World Series Champions — Suck it, Noah Lyles,” a shirtless Kiké Hernandez touted from the Dodgers’ champagne party after defeating the Yankees in Game 5 on Wednesday.
The Puerto Rican outfielder’s quip calls back to comments the 27-year-old American sprinter made in August 2023 when he took issue with NBA players calling themselves “world champions” after winning the NBA title.
“You know what hurts me the most is that I have to watch the NBA Finals and they have ‘world champion’ on their head,” Lyles said during a press conference at the World Athletics Championships, days after the Denver Nuggets defeated the Miami Heat to win their first title in franchise history.
“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 … there ain’t no flags in the NBA.”
It wasn’t just the content of Lyles’ comments that irked players all across the association, but the sprinter’s tone and delivery, too.
“Somebody help this brother,” Kevin Durant wrote.
“Lol is somebody going to tell him??” Bam Adebayo commented.
As Austin Rivers pointed out, “[The] best players in the world play in the league … winning [an] NBA championship qualifies as world champs.”
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Lyles, like Durant and Adebayo, got their official world champ designations about a year later during the 2024 Olympics — the former, in the 100m sprint event; the latter two, as members of Team USA basketball.
Close readers may note that “World Series Champions” isn’t quite the same as “World Champions.”
Hernandez was a member of the Dodgers’ team that captured its eighth World Series in franchise history.
Major League Baseball has called its championship round the World Series since 1903.
