Former NBA star center Joakim Noah recently opened up and reflected on his uneventful time spent playing for the New York Knicks from 2016-2018.
Noah came to New York just two years removed from starting 67 games for his long-time team the Chicago Bulls, where he finished No. 12 in the Defensive Player of the Year award race and averaged 4.7 assists alongside 9.6 nightly rebounds.
While he looked very close to the two-time All-Star the NBA world had grown accustomed to seeing in his first year playing at Madison Square Garden — headlined by his 8.8 board in only 22.1 minutes a game — his performance the following year in 2017-18 was not only a major letdown, but also ushered him out of the league’s spotlight and signaled his coming retirement.
Knicks: Joakim Noah details reasons behind unfruitful experience playing in New York
Noah’s fiery personality caused stirs within the franchise ranks, and his health — marred by a shoulder ailment that shelved him for the final 30 games of 2016-17 — compounded with that, which aided in his untimely split with the Knicks in 2018. Now six years removed from his last showing with the Knicks, and four years from his retirement, the former passionate center unearthed what it may have been that caused his play to diminish at that time:
“It was disappointing not to be able to be 100% playing for the Knicks,” Noah said (h/t Fox News).
“It was a tough experience, because I wasn’t able to compete the way I wanted to, I wasn’t able to express myself on the court the way that I wanted to, and it was my childhood dream. So, something that I want people to know . . . it was an experience that didn’t work out the way that I wanted to, and that’s life.”
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Noah ultimately did not give the Knicks all that he was capable of
The on-the-court stuff is one thing. However, the French former MVP candidate also had testy situations with Knicks personnel off-the-court, including a well-reported shoving match with then-Knicks head coach Jeff Hornacek that served as the straw that broke the camel’s back for him in the Big Apple.
Noah’s expression as a player was heavily predicated on his superb distribution skills, bringing the ball up the middle of the court in transition, protecting the rim, and letting his opponents know about it openly. He did not get to match his play with the Bulls in New York, but in retrospect, he has come to grips with the harsh reality that life threw him at that juncture of his career.
