untitled design

NBA: Frenchman Joakim Noah retires at 36

was a hell of an adventure’. It is with these words that Joakim Noah, one of the most beautiful achievements in French basketball, twice selected for the All-Star Game and named best defender in 2014, ended his career at 36, after thirteen passionate seasons in NBA. “Thank you to all those who have shown me love throughout my career”, soberly wrote this Monday, March 1, on his Instagram account, the one who has long worn the jersey of the Chicago Bulls, confirming information from the site The Athletic.

Since being released from his contract with the Los Angeles Clippers this winter, the prospect of Joakim Noah putting his sneakers away seemed inevitable. Three months ago, his agent Bill Duffy announced the color, believing that he was heading “very probably towards retirement”. According to The Athletic, the French would also like to act under the Bulls jersey, as did former Celtic Paul Pierce, who had signed a final one-day contract with Boston.

With Chicago, who dreamed of a glorious tomorrow after the Michael Jordan era (six titles between 1991 and 1998), he only missed one title to make the story perfect, so much the fans appreciated his dedication and his ferocity. at all times on the floors. With the other star of the team Derrick Rose, they approached it in 2011, beaten in the Eastern Conference final by the Miami Heat (4-1) of LeBron James, one of his “best enemies” with whom he will have fought great physical and verbal battles.

Best defenseman in the NBA in 2014

Drafted in 9th position in June 2007, Joakim Noah saw his career be marked by participation in the play-off six consecutive years, from 2009 to 2014, with the Bulls. In 2014, at the end of his most successful season, the Pivot won the trophy for best defenseman in the league, is part of the best five and finished 4th in the votes for the title of MVP. In 2016, he followed Derrick Rose to New York, the city where he was born on February 25, 1985, but the project of the president of the Knicks, Phil Jackson, former coach with eleven rings (six with the Bulls and five with the Lakers), is a fiasco.

Subsequently, Joakim Noah bounced back with the Memphis Grizzlies during the 2018-2019 season before joining the Los Angeles Clippers in March 2020, a franchise with which he therefore spent his last moments as players on the floors of the NBA, in the health “bubble” of Disney World where the Clippers are eliminated in the Western Conference semifinals by Denver.

The story of Joakim Noah, on the other hand, was written in dotted lines with the France team. Yannick Noah’s son, also Swedish, through his mother Cecilia Rodhe, only wore the Blues jersey 22 times between 2009 and 2011, still winning silver at the 2011 European Championship with Tony Parker in particular. .

You may also like

Get the latest

Stay Informed: Get the Latest Updates and Insights

 

Most popular