Joakim Noah’s $72 million contract represented one of the biggest failings of Phil Jackson’s Knicks tenure, and Noah opened up about his turbulent years in New York on the latest episode of “Knuckleheads,” a Player’s Tribune podcast with Darius Miles and Quentin Richardson.
Noah talked about his multiple injuries and his comments that he was “too lit” to play in the Big Apple, and believes his tenure with the Knicks got off to a rough start right away because of the injuries he was dealing with when he signed his four-year deal back in 2016.
“That was tough, because that’s when the injuries started piling up,” Noah said. “I signed a big deal with the Knicks, so expectations were high, and I had three surgeries in one year. I guess sometimes it’s the cards you were dealt.
“It was a blessing in a sense that I got paid a lot of money, but at the same time, it was like ‘Damn, I can’t bring it how I used to.’”
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Noah had already been dealing with shoulder injuries the season prior, his last with the Bulls, which limited him to 29 games that year. His shoulder continued to be an issue, and his knee, and he wound up appearing in just 53 games for the Knicks over two seasons.
“Injuries are a motherf**** man,” Noah said. “It’s part of it. It’s part of growing up as a man, saying ‘You know what, I’m not the same guy at 32 that I was at 25. That’s something we all go through. Can you handle that? There were times I couldn’t. there was a learning curve.”
Noah admitted that he should have been more vocal about the injuries he was dealing with, as he would only appear in 47 more NBA games in his career after being waived by the Knicks. Even when healthy, Noah struggled in New York, averaging just 4.6 points and 7.9 rebounds while struggling badly from the free throw line, and after a fiery exchange with then-head coach Jeff Hornacek, his time with the Knicks was over.
“That’s something I wish I was a little bit smarter with in my career,” Noah said. “I think they do a good job now monitoring players a little more, but when I was playing, it was ‘If you can’t go, just go.’ It was tough, man. I think I was taking a lot of things to cover up the pain and masking stuff, and it’s a slippery slope if you want to play that game.”
But Noah also wishes he was given a little more help from the Knicks in terms of the outlook of his injuries.
“They talk about this s**t like ‘He’ll be back in 4-6 weeks,’” Noah said. “What the f**k you mean? I’m over here in bed. You’re talking about 4-6 weeks, I gotta go up against the fastest and baddest motherf***rs in the world. I’m in bed, I can’t move my shoulder, I can’t move my knee.”
After signing a veteran minimum deal with the Grizzlies following his Knicks tenure, Noah said he was “too lit” for New York, and that Chicago was as well, but he was “younger” there and could “recover faster.” He reworded those comments when talking with Richardson and Miles.
“I think it was misunderstood,” Noah said. “Some people said I’m lit, like I’m so lit. I meant it like ‘I’m lit, like I was f**ked up.’ I was injured, I’m dealing with three injuries, I’m taking drugs to deal with the pain, I was lit. I was f**cked up. That’s the s**t I had to deal with.”
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