Noah Lyles called out NBA teams in a passionate rant during a press conference at the Athletics World Championships.
The United States sprinter was in dominant form at the event in Budapest. He became world champion for the first time in the 100m as he clocked a time of 9.83, narrowly beating Botswana's Letsile Tebogo and Great Britain and Northern Ireland's Zharnel Hughes to the title.
He successfully defended his title in the 200m as he blitzed the field with a time of 19.52, before making it a hat-trick of gold medals in United States' victory in the 4x100m relay.
Lyles gives passionate speech about the state of Athletics
Lyles is extremely charismatic who is not afraid to share his feelings. After winning 200m gold, the 26-year-old, who is arguably the most recognisable individual in Athletics today, gave a passionate answer when asked about the state of the sport.
He said: "I don't think we've got three hours to talk about it. It's a conversation I have every day with my agent on how we are going to better this sport.
“Medals are the first step, because if you don't have the medals then who is going to want to pay attention to you. And after you get the medals, then you get the times, then more and more people gain interest and now you can go into different directions. You can go into fashion, you can go into music, you can start collaborating with other people, bigger athletes, artists and the world.
"Right now the bar is low. Come on guys? As I look around this world championships I don't see [Usain] Bolt, I don't see Asafa [Powell], I don't even see Yohann [Blake] and he's still running! Where are all these great champions? Why are they not here? Why are we not inviting top level athletes to come watch the world championships."
Noah Lyles takes swipe at NBA
Lyles then took aim at NBA teams that call themselves world champions. He continued: "You know, the thing that hurts me the most? I have to watch the NBA finals and they have world champion on their heads. World champion of what? The United States?
“Don’t get me wrong. I love the US 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 and putting on a flag to show that they are represented. There ain’t no flags in the NBA. We got to do more. We got to be presented to the world.”
Lyles was given a round of applause by the journalists in attendance at the end of his passionate speech.
Noah Lyles: Athletics is not marketed in the right way
Expanding further on what athletics has to do to get more popular, Lyles said, per the Guardian: “I feel we have a great sport. But I am a firm believer that track and field is just not marketed the right way. We could do a better job in selling ourselves and selling our stories.
“It’s going to take some professionalism. That’s what it’s going to take. I’m sorry, but no more of this amateur stuff. We got to treat ourselves like a business, not like a nonprofit. Hopefully the money will come. But if we aren’t even professional with ourselves, then we’re just a joke.”