Noah Lyles Ends Beef With Anthony Edwards Over Adidas Sneakers

Noah Lyles clarified his feelings about Anthony Edwards' signature adidas sneakers.

Anthony Edwards wears the adidas AE 1. / Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

The Paris Olympics are over, but the drama is still going strong. Sunday was a tale of two gold medalists. Team USA basketball player Anthony Edwards attended an adidas-sponsored event where the brand gifted him a 1-of-1 golden pair of his signature sneakers.

Meanwhile, American sprinter Noah Lyles spent the day dealing with comments he made in a TIME profile last year. Adidas invited Lyles to the launch event for Edwards' debut hoop shoe - the adidas AE 1.

The invitation, which came in the middle of contract extension talks between Lyles and Adidas, was taken the wrong way by the world's fastest man.

Noah Lyles reportedly had NO interest in accepting Adidas' invite to an Anthony Edwards shoe-release event last year 😳 pic.twitter.com/LjWTBokIiC

— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) August 11, 2024

Lyles asked incredulously "You want to do what? You want to invite me to [an event for] a man who has not even been to an NBA Finals? In a sport that you don't even care about? And you're giving him a shoe? No disrespect; the man is an amazing athlete. He is having a heck of a year. I love that they saw the insight to give him a shoe, because they saw that he was going to be big. All I'm asking is, 'How could you not see that for me?'"

On Monday morning, Lyles attempted to squash the beef by posting a statement on X, formerly Twitter.

"There is a rumor going around that I did not go to @theantedwards_ shoe release because he didn't deserve it. That is not the case he definitely deserves his shoes he is an amazing player. The problem was finding time based on my prior engagements. Congratulations on Becoming an Olympic champion!"

There is a rumor going around that I did not go to @theantedwards_ shoe release because he didn’t deserve it. That is not the case he definitely deserves his shoes he is an amazing player. The problem was finding time based on my prior engagements.
Congratulations on Becoming an…

— Noah Lyles, OLY (@LylesNoah) August 12, 2024

It is easy to understand why Lyles would be upset that he did not receive more from adidas, although he did reach a lucrative multi-year contract extension. The sprinter won the 100-meter gold and quickly made it clear that he wanted a signature sneaker line.

On the other hand, we can see why so many basketball fans and sneakerheads would take exception to Lyles' comments. The NBA is more popular than Track & Field, and Edwards is quickly becoming the face of the league.

Edwards recently signed a contract extension with adidas, and his highly-popular signature sneaker line shows no signs of slowing down. Stay locked into Kicks on SI for all your sneaker news from the sports world and beyond.

Rankings: The 10 best shoes worn during the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics.