Joakim Noah opens up on Knicks exile: 'I couldn't express myself on the court'

Joakim Noah broke his six-year exile from Madison Square Garden in February when he went to watch his former and hometown team, the New York Knicks, beat the Memphis Grizzlies 123-113. 

But Noah, who was born and raised in New York City, couldn’t say whether he was rooting for the Knicks or for Memphis. His longtime teammate, Derrick Rose, was playing for the Grizzlies, and Noah himself played for the Grizzlies. 

"More than the actual teams, I root for players now," Noah told Fox News Digital in an interview at the NBA Night in the Emirates Suite at the U.S. Open last week. 

Noah and Rose played together on the Chicago Bulls, where they began their careers in 2007 and 2008, respectively, and then both players moved to the Knicks in 2016.

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Their shared tenure in New York didn’t last long, however, as Rose left the very next year, and Noah was released in 2018.

For Noah, his jump to New York in 2016 represented an accomplished childhood dream. It placed him on the team that he had grown up watching, the team that had inspired him in the '90s. But it also put him in a place where he couldn’t quite be who he wanted to be. 

"It was disappointing not to be able to be 100% playing for the Knicks," Noah said. 

"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." 

The Knicks signed Noah to a four-year, $72 million contract in 2016, but they ended up waiving him during the 2018 preseason, when he still had two years and $37.8 million remaining. 

The season prior to that, an incident occurred in January where Noah had to be separated from former Knicks head coach Jeff Hornacek. The two got into a shoving match that reportedly had been started by the coach. He didn’t play in another game for the Knicks after that.

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Noah’s first season in New York in 2016-17 started with standard fare for the then-veteran. He averaged 8.8 rebounds with 5 points and 2.2 assists for the Knicks, which resembled his previous two seasons in Chicago, but certainly not as good as the numbers he put as an All-Star in the 2012-13 and 2013-14 seasons. 

But in March 2017, Noah was suspended for 20 games without pay for violating the league's anti-drug policy after testing positive for a drug called LGD-4033. Noah, having not played since February 4, was likely to miss the Knicks' final 10 games of the season because of a left knee injury anyway. So the suspension carried over into the first 10 games of the 2017–18 season.

Then in April, Noah required surgery for a left torn rotator cuff and would need four to six months to rehabilitate.

As a result, Noah’s second season, even before the incident with Hornacek, marked a steep dropoff for the veteran. He played only seven games for Knicks that year, all off the bench, averaging just 2 rebounds with 1.7 points and 0.6 assists.

Before long, Noah’s dream of playing for the Knicks was officially over. He spent the last two years of his career as a journeyman bench player, playing a productive season for Memphis in 2018-19, then just five games for the LA Clippers in 2019-20. 

Still, the messy breakup didn’t stop the childhood Knicks fan from enjoying his trip to Madison Square Garden this year and he couldn’t help but be excited for the players, especially star point guard Jalen Brunson

"It was a great feeling just to see the energy in the crowd, just to see the love that these players are getting, it’s well-deserved, because this team is really special," Noah said. 

"I remember watching Jalen Brunson. His dad [Rick Brunson] was my coach with the Bulls. So I remember watching Jalen play when he was 11 or 12 years old in Chicago, and now to see what he’s doing, the humility that he’s doing it with, and just the way that he’s brought stability to basketball in this city, especially as a point guard, is just so fun to watch."

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