Joakim Noah calls out fans who want the Bulls to tank

[Johnnydollaz89]

"There's no tanking, and that's it," Noah said in an impassioned media session Saturday night."

"We just want to represent," Noah said Saturday. "When I come to the game, I see the guy selling the newspapers on the streets. [It's] cold outside . When he sees me driving by, he's excited. You know what I mean? He's excited. He's like, 'All right. Let's go Bulls! Get it done tonight!' I feel like I play for that guy. Like when I look at the top of the arena, and I look up top and I see teams call timeout, and I see the guy who looks this big and he's up cheering up and down, jumping up and down, that's the guy I play for."

http://espn.go.com/chicago/nba/story...-chicago-bulls

Joakim Noah has a message for all the Chicago Bulls fans who believe his team should tank games this season to slide all the way into the NBA draft lottery.

"What do I say to those fans?" Noah told ESPNChicago.com after the Bulls' 128-125 triple overtime victory over the Orlando Magic on Wednesday. "I don't say nothing to those fans. It's all good. You're allowed to have your opinion. It's just ... that's not a real fan to me. You know what I'm saying? You want your team to lose? What is that? But it's all good."

"Do you really think we talk about it?" Noah said. "No way, man. No way. We don't talk about those things. It's like it's so far from our reality. You know what I mean? We play for a coach [Tom Thibodeau] that's ... it's difficult. It's difficult every day. We grind hard every day, and we give it our best effort every day. You know we're playing Orlando, they're down three guys -- we're fighting.

"It's different to have an opinion when you're like watching it from your couch compared to when you're out living it every day."

Bulls forward Taj Gibson wonders what fans would do if they were in the situation the players face.

"Those people, if they were in our shoes, they wouldn't just lose," Gibson said. "The majority of time people just have their opinions and that's fine and dandy, but they're not on the court and they're not giving their heart and soul into this game the way we do. I respect their opinion, but we're not going to do that."

Gibson said the team has begun to view their situation like that of the fictional version of the Cleveland Indians in the movie "Major League." In the movie, the team's owner decides to make the organization as bad as it can possibly be to relocate it. The Bulls' situation is not as dire, but Gibson sees parallels.

"We understand it's kind of like the movie 'Major League,'" Gibson said. "We've got that mentality where we believe in the locker room. We believe in what we think. And we're taking it one game at a time and we're trying to get those wins hopefully to see ... get a good nice poster at the end of the year."

In the movie, the players put together a cutout of the owner's body with the caption: "You guys stink!" After each win they pealed off a section of the cutout.

So who will be on the cutout for the Bulls?

"We haven't figured that out yet," Gibson said with a smile. "But that's kind of the way we're going at it. That's what Joakim started, Joakim said it, and I've just been running with it. Every game is like a test and we're fighting."

Noah declined to talk about the motivational tactic, but Gibson said the already demanding Thibodeau has been motivating his players more than ever to get the most out of them.

"Thibs is, every day he's coming in he's kind of shocked and at the same time he's so proud," Gibson said. "Because he's like, 'I believe in what we have, and I'm so proud of you guys. You already keep shocking me every time you step on the court. And I think we got enough, it's going to be a special year and we've just got to keep digging.' "

http://espn.go.com/chicago/nba/story...ago-bulls-tank

 

[anotheridiot]

so trade him away already. so sick of this goof and his tornado shot. What the fuck was he taking the last shot in two of three overtimes. he is not an offensive force, centers in the east suck. all centers suck, its a lost position. he damn near fouled the three point attempt that could have gotten a fourth overtime. This guy needs to be dennis rodman, rebound and put back shots, set screens. this is not a final shot threat.

fuck him, trade him away so thibbs will want to go to new york.

 

[Pencil Sharpener]

not fuck him, but yes trade him in the holy goal of tanking.


I wont blast an athlete because he wants to win. I can question this team as to why they dont think outside of the game, and fail to understand that none of them are Robin or Batman or Rose whenever he is back.

We tried Bogans and Rip thinking we needed a batgirl, both failed.


As far as Thibs, he will be traded in the offseason like Rivers was. So even more reasons to trade players like Noah, Kirk, MDJ, and Taj

 

[anotheridiot]

our point center has made the all star team.