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Joakim Noah skips dinner with cadets during Knicks camp at West Point

New York Knicks center Joakim Noah decided not to attend a team dinner on Thursday night with cadets at the United States Military Academy at West Point, where the Knicks are holding their preseason training camp, because of his opposition to war and “kids killing kids around the world.”

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This marks the third straight year that the Knicks have traveled north of the city to West Point for camp. The team hadn’t made the trip since 1967 — Jackson’s rookie season as a player for the Knicks — and the legendary coach-turned-Knicks president of basketball operations decided to resume the practice once he took the reins of the team in 2014.

“I like the feel of West Point,” Jackson told longtime confidante Charley Rosen last year. “It’s serious, sequestered, and there’s a sense of discipline everywhere you go. It’s a good learning place.”

Joakim Noah answers questions during a news conference at the Knicks' training facility on July 8, 2016. (AP)
Joakim Noah answers questions during a news conference at the Knicks’ training facility on July 8, 2016. (AP)

It’s also a service academy that produces lieutenants in the U.S. Army. That relationship to the military leaves Noah — the son of Cameroonian-French tennis star Yannick Noah and Swedish beauty queen/artist Cecilia Rodhe; the holder of American, Swedish and French citizenship; the avowed pacifist (off the court, at least) — feeling ill at ease.

“He has the utmost respect for the military members and cadets,” a representative for Noah told TMZ Sports on Friday. “He just doesn’t agree with war.”

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Later Friday, Noah — reportedly the only member of the Knicks not to attend the dinner — spoke for himself. From Al Iannazzone of Newsday:

“It’s hard for me a little bit,” Noah said Friday afternoon. “I have a lot of respect for the kids who are out here fighting. But it’s hard for me to understand why we have to go to war, why kids have to kill kids around the world? So I have mixed feelings about being here.

“I’m very proud of this country. I love America but I just don’t understand kids killing kids around the world.” […]

“I’m not a very patriotic person to be honest,” Noah said. “I don’t understand the whole flags, supporting flags. I’m more into supporting people.”

Knicks coach Jeff Hornacek gave Noah permission to skip the function. While he did say he believed the speech given at the dinner by retired Col. Steve Martel would be helpful for Noah, Hornacek emphasized his respect for Noah’s decision, according to Marc Berman of the New York Post:

“It’s his right,’’ Hornacek said. “We want him part of the team group. He just didn’t feel comfortable. We’re not going to pressure him into doing that. We had a speaker who I thought was fantastic. I told him maybe I can get him a copy of the speech, so he can hear some of it. It’s his right. That’s fine.

“With all his stuff he does against gun violence, it’s plenty fine with us,’’ Hornacek added.

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During his time with the Chicago Bulls, Noah became familiar with that city’s problems with gun violence and got involved in trying to address the issue. His Noah’s Arc Foundation was built on standing against gun violence, and he’s long been involved in efforts to curb gun and gang violence in Chicago.

He dropped his six-shooting air gun routine in the wake of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn, and last year joined Stephen Curry, Chris Paul and new Knicks teammate Carmelo Anthony in calling for an end to gun violence on behalf of the NBA in a national ad campaign by Everytown for Gun Safety. He said this summer that if he was president, he “would make it illegal to buy guns,” an expression of his disappointment that “these [gun] laws aren’t changing” even as new reports of police brutality, gang violence, mass shootings and other incidents seem to hit the news with increasing frequency these days.

Intermingling between sports leagues and the military is nothing new. The 31-year-old NBA vet said Friday that he has decided against participating in other military-related events in the past, and that he would do so “every time, probably,” according to Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News:

“I’m not anti-troops. It’s just not comfortable for me to see kids going to war and coming back having seen what they’ve seen and done what they’ve done. It’s sad for me. It’s sad for me. They’re just sent out for things that are — I don’t really want to get into it, to be honest with you. It’s just hard for me.”

Noah’s decision to skip dinner comes as many players, coaches, teams and the NBA itself are grappling with questions surrounding potential protests of “The Star-Spangled Banner” before NBA games. San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick first sat, then kneeled rather than standing for the national anthem, in protest of police killings and treatment of minorities throughout the country. That protest has been joined by other NFL players as well as athletes in a number of other sports.

Noah, for his part, said he’d stand for the anthem during the season, according to the Daily News:

“I stand. I stand. I think there’s a lot of topics that definitely need to be more than addressed. I think it’s a very important time right now. I think it’s great athletes are taking a stand. But it has to be about more than that. This country’s out of control. Kids killing kids. And it has nothing to do with, people are talking about the anthem but that’s not the point. There are things that need to be fixed.”

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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!

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