Joakim Noah is a lot of things but rarely has anyone called him dirty. Danny Granger did last night after Noah and the Bulls wiped out Indiana’s season in convincing fashion. Granger was visibly upset for a couple of elbows Noah had thrown at the Pacers’ Josh McRoberts and Tyler Hansbrough. As the teams exited followed the Bulls 116-89 win, Granger first tried to get in Noah’s face before being separated and then had to be held back as he tried going after the Bulls’ center again.
Afterwards, Granger, who averaged 21.6 points and 5.6 rebounds during the five-game series, told the Daily Herald that he wasn’t happy at all.
Moments after the Bulls finished off Indiana on Tuesday night, Pacers forward Danny Granger wanted to start things with Joakim Noah.
Granger headed toward the Bulls bench to give Noah a piece of his mind, but Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau intervened and told Granger to cool off.
That forced Granger to call out Noah via the media after the Bulls’ 116-89 Game 5 victory.
“Joakim Noah, he’s a dirty player,” Granger said. “Honestly. He elbowed two of my power forwards. One got kicked out. The other got a tech and nothing’s called on him.
“I don’t think there’s a place in the game for it. You can make hard fouls and everything, but when you start elbowing people in the face, that’s when fights start breaking out.”
Noah tried to avoid the conversation, telling reporters that he was merely trying to win the game. In fact, McRoberts wasn’t even angry at Noah, despite getting tossed for his role in the altercation. Late in the third quarter, the power forward was hit directly in the throat by an elbow from Noah, so he charged after him and gave him a nice shove in the chest. Did it warrant an ejection? Do any of these ejections nowadays warrant ejections?
All in all, Noah seems more goofy than he does dirty (ironically, he was the one who once called Kevin Garnett “dirty”). And as basketball players around the world know, goofy guys, who also play insanely hard, are normally the ones who end up in fights under the basket for their elbow-swinging and hard-foul giving.
Do you think Noah is a dirty player?
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