Joakim Noah reveals welcome to the NBA moment
Joakim Noah was one of the best defensive centers of his time. He was mobile enough to cover plenty of ground on the perimeter, and he was sturdy enough to withstand bulky scorers in the post. He was also an active passing lane pest and he protected the rim with ease. The Chicago Bulls would not have emerged as one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference in the early 2010s had it not been for his contributions .
However, Noah wasn't always his best defensive self. He had to take his fair share of lumps, and he had to learn some of the tricks of the trade the hard way. After all, he entered the league with the Bulls during an era where Shaquille O'Neal, Tim Duncan, and Yao Ming, to name a few, dominated the paint. But the man who gave him a rude NBA awakening isn't one of those three Hall of Famers.
Noah shared on the Knuckleheads podcast that a certain Los Angeles Clippers center by the name of Chris Kaman was the one who gave him the work and made him realize that defending in the NBA was not as easy as it seemed.
"It was a guy I hadn't even heard of before," Noah recalled to hosts Darius Miles and Quentin Richardson. "We played the Clippers, and I've got to guard Chris Kaman. I'm like 'man, I don't even know who Chris Kaman is.' ... Left, right, on the block. Man, it was crazy. He was talking s**t too," Noah shared.
During Joakim Noah's rookie season, he was mostly a bench center who played behind Ben Wallace. Noah definitely learned plenty of helpful tricks from a four-time Defensive Player of the Year winner, but Kaman knocked him down a peg or two back in the early days of his playing career.
Kaman, of course, is no random center. During his peak, he was a nightly double-double threat and he could give any center the business on any given night. He has faded into obscurity thanks to the lackluster fashion with which he ended his career, but at the very least, he will live long in the memory of the former Bulls center.
Joakim Noah was the Bulls' heart and soul
As mentioned earlier, the late 2000s to the early 2010s Bulls would not have been a rock-solid team if it wasn't for the presence of Joakim Noah. He was the team's heartbeat — a vocal leader who relished doing the dirty work and getting into his opponents' faces.
Noah rounded out his game as well; he wasn't just a defensive specialist, he also grew to become a very solid playmaking hub in his prime who even had the stones to carry the ball in transition. He peaked during the 2013-14 season; with Derrick Rose still hampered by his knee issues, Noah took on a larger two-way role, averaging 12.6 points, 11.3 rebounds, and 5.4 assists to go along with 1.2 steals and 1.5 blocks per game — earning him the Defensive Player of the Year award as well as a fourth-place finish in the MVP race.
Injury problems cut Noah's prime short. By the time he was 31 and with the New York Knicks, he looked like he was done playing at a high level. But Noah will be remembered for a long time for the passion he played the game with.
