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Joakim Noah calls Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf's 'frontline' dig 'a low blow'
Rare is the NBA owner that goes on record to discuss player personnel decisions. Even rarer is the NBA owner that goes on record to justify any transactions, especially to the point of criticizing an ex-player that has since been set free.
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That sort of precedent didn’t get in the way of Chicago Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf from deciding to label former Bulls center Joakim Noah as “not a frontline guy” while talking to media on the days before his induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame. Noah, who played for Chicago from 2007 through last season prior to signing a four-year, $72 million deal with his hometown New York Knicks, decided to tactfully and accurately answer to Reinsdorf’s dig on Wednesday:
“He’s entitled to his opinion,’’ Noah said. “I feel I have no regrets about my time in Chicago. I gave it everything I had. To me that’s all that matters. I did everything I could for that organization. I thought it was a little bit of a low blow, but at the end of the day I have nothing but respect for that organization. I’m just excited for this new chapter of my career.”
“Low blow” will and should make the headlines. “I gave it everything I had” should be the takeaway, here.
The Chicago Bulls basically used up Joakim Noah’s career in ways that are more akin to a past-prime NFL running back or post-surgery starting pitcher in MLB, as opposed to a 31-year old NBA center. Joakim Noah isn’t coming off of an ACL and meniscus tear as ex-Bull and current Knick teammate Derrick Rose is, but he’s certainly been in decline after the Chicago medical and coaching staff wore him out during the height of the Tom Thibodeau era.
Actually, we don’t know if Noah suffered a major tear in one of his knees, because the Bulls to this day refuse to acknowledge on record the severity or specifics behind whatever the hell Joakim Noah underwent an operation for in May, 2014.
That “minor” surgery was supposed to put him on the shelf for eight-to-12 weeks (“minor” operations don’t sideline an NBA player for that long), but six months later Noah was still complaining about the aftereffects of the operation, and he was a shell of himself in 2014-15; just months after finishing in the top five in MVP voting while winning the Defensive Player of the Year award.
Noah rebounded somewhat in his final season in Chicago last year, but a shoulder injury sidelined him for what would become Chicago’s first playoff-less season since Noah’s rookie year in 2007-08.
The perception league-wide is that Chicago used all it could of Joakim Noah during his inspired turn as a Chicago Bull, leaving the Knicks to overpay him as a free agent as Joakim works deep into his mid-30s. That’s smart business and basketball acumen, as the Bulls now currently employ the younger and cheaper Robin Lopez – the center that Noah will replace in New York.
What isn’t on the level at all is Jerry Reinsdorf’s needless comments. This is what Reinsdorf does, though. He feels a need to dig in post-negotiation (ask Noah, Michael Jordan, or even Reinsdorf’s current Bulls co-personnel chief John Paxson) to leave players walking away from the bargaining table as if they’d just lost in 12 rounds.
Even if – in the case of MJ, Paxson, and Joakim Noah’s new $72 million deal for his beloved Knicks – the players technically “won.”
Noah, in taking the high road, didn’t lose this one. He has every reason to be upset after leaving it all on the floor for Chicago for nine seasons, in the wake of his former employer’s gratuitous dig, yet he showed a man more than twice his age just how it’s done.
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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
