Shut up, Joakim Noah. Not for me. For you. Stop talking, or at the very least, stop talking nonsense.
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| Joakim Noah's reputation will slide if he doesn't watch his mouth. (Getty Images) |
Which might not be a bad thing.
Smart as he is, Noah doesn't realize he has entered dangerous ground, dragged there by the qualities that make him so enjoyable -- his raw confidence, his honesty. After parlaying last season's national championship run into cult hero status, Noah's reputation has receded to the point where it could go either way this week.
That's just a feeling I have, but I feel qualified to state it. If there was such a thing as a University of College Basketball, I'd be enrolled -- and I'd be majoring in Joakim Noah. The guy fascinates me. He has ever since he was a wobbly 14-year-old in the stands at the Adidas ABCD camp in Teaneck, N.J., watching games while dribbling a ball underneath his outstretched legs.
Over the years Noah has evolved from a curiosity -- Hey, that's Yannick Noah's kid -- to a modestly recruited high school player to a college freshman stuck on the end of Florida's bench to the breakout sophomore star of the 2005-06 NCAA season. Last year Noah was a revelation. He had a huge personality and he wasn't afraid to show it, and he embraced the attention that came to him as the centerpiece of a Final Four team.
Lately, the attention seems to be getting to him, wearing him down. It's understandable -- imagine juggling college classes with basketball, massive expectations and media obligations -- but at the same time, you'd trade his problems for yours, right?
Thing is, Noah brings some of his problems onto himself. Through excess he has turned the accoutrements of the modern basketball warrior -- the primeval scream, the chest-pounding -- into a cliché. That is not, however, my problem with Noah. He can scream and bang his chest to his heart's delight. It makes him a little more like everyone else, but it doesn't offend me. (Can't say the same for a guy from FOXSports.com, who wrote this comical attack of Noah.)
My problem with Noah is not what I see, but what I hear. And what I hear coming from his mouth is silly, bordering on absurd, and headed toward annoying. Hence my concerns for his reputation. He's too cool to throw it all away in a flurry of self-absorbed silliness.
"Let them hate us!" Noah bellowed after the Gators beat Oregon in the Elite Eight.
Stop right there. The average fan, or whoever "them" is, doesn't hate the Gators. Not like "they" hate Duke, and not even like "they" resent traditional powers Kentucky or North Carolina. Those schools draw a negative reaction nationwide. Florida and Noah get grief on the road -- who doesn't get grief on the road? -- but Florida isn't Duke, and Noah isn't Christian Laettner. To indicate otherwise, as Noah has done repeatedly, doesn't give the average fan enough credit .. and gives Florida way too much.
"Keep hatin'," Noah told the media after the Butler game. "You guys tried to divide us."
Good grief. The media fell in love with Noah last year, but the media is fickle. For weeks he's been picking this needless fight with the wrong bully, and the bully is starting to notice. In his blog at the Baltimore Sun, Paul McMullen defended Noah but noted that not everyone agrees, writing: "About two weeks ago, a veteran basketball man even grayer than me described Joakim Noah as a jerk, except that he used a compound word that is less flattering."
