PARIS — A day after Noah Lyles’ photo-finish win in the men’s 100-meter final, the city was still buzzing about the thrilling way in which the audacious 27-year-old American won Olympic gold.
That included Team USA men’s basketball practice at Marcel Cerdan Sports Complex, where most players and coaches had to live vicariously through those who were there because they did not attend in person. But one of the players who did attend, and who enjoyed seeing Lyles back up all that braggadocio in a race won by a remarkable five one-thousandths of a second over Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson, was Phoenix Suns star Devin Booker.
“It was crazy,” Booker said. “I mean, it was great for America. Congrats to him.”
As Booker acknowledged, though, there was a fascinating NBA backdrop to the event that was impossible to ignore. Last summer, after Lyles won the 100-meter final at the World Championships in Budapest and sat at the podium for his post-race news conference, he took issue with the fact that NBA champions are often referred to as “world champions.”
The comment went viral, with American players such as Kevin Durant, Damian Lillard and, yes, Booker (who tweeted a face-palm emoji) sharing their disagreement on social media. Others, among them Greece native and Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo, agreed with Lyles’ idea that, with all 30 NBA teams based in North America, the team that wins it all should be considered a league champion.
With that context in mind, how did Booker find the experience?
“I still don’t agree with the comment,” Booker told The Athletic. “I feel like all the best talent in the world is in the NBA, and this is coming from an Olympic gold medalist (who believes) that being an NBA champion is probably harder to do.”
Booker is a resident expert on this topic. Not only did he win gold with Team USA at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, when the Americans went 5-1 in the tournament while winning by an average of 25.4 points along the way, but he was the leading man on the Suns team that fell in six games to Milwaukee in the 2021 NBA Finals after leading the series 2-0.
Even still, Booker said, his support for a countryman outweighed any residue that might have remained from Lyles’ comment.
“The statement was said,” Booker said. “I think how it was said — you know, it was just out of context. I feel like it was something that was weighing on his heart for a long time. He’s gained a following since then. He held it down, though, so congrats to him.”
Booker wasn’t the only Team USA men’s basketball participant who witnessed the incredible event in person. He was joined by the team’s managing director and former NBA player Grant Hill, assistant coach Tyronn Lue and teammates Joel Embiid and Jayson Tatum.
“That was dope,” Tatum said of the evening at Stade de France. “That was my first ever track and field event.”
The race is considered by some to be the best 100-meter men’s final of all time, and it wasn’t just the finish that made it so special. In those tension-filled minutes before the starting gun sounded, when the Stade de France crowd of approximately 80,000 lit up amid a purple light show that heightened the senses, the eight sprinters faced a delay that surely challenged the nerves.
Five…thousandths…of a second. Wow. That was fun to be here for. Lyles backs it all up. pic.twitter.com/ywmJxRRXau
— Sam Amick (@sam_amick) August 4, 2024
Moments later, after all eight men finished in under 10 seconds for the first time in history in a wind-legal 100-meter race and were separated by just 0.12 seconds from first to last, the confusion and emotion was palpable throughout the massive venue when it wasn’t clear who’d won. Lyles and Thompson paced near each other on the track, with the cameras catching Thompson saying, “Come on man! Come on, man!” Lyles, in turn, told him, “I think you’ve got this one, big dog.”
But he did not. Lyles, whose dip at the finish line put him ahead by the slimmest of margins, had set a personal best of 9.79 seconds and fulfilled the goal he’d been chasing since failing to qualify for the 100 at the Tokyo Games in 2021.
Lyles now has a chance to become the first American since Carl Lewis in 1984 to win gold in both the 100 and 200 in the same Olympics (the first round of 200-meter races begins Monday night). And regardless of what anyone wants to call NBA champs, Lyles’ status as the top short-range sprinter in the world is without dispute.
