5 Memorable Joakim Noah Moments as a Member of the Chicago Bulls
By Paul Steeno
Noah wins Defensive Player of the Year Award (April 21, 2014)
The 2013-14 NBA regular season couldn’t have ended in a more fitting way for Joakim Noah.
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At the end of the season, the NBA presented him with the Defensive Player of the Year Award. It was a well-deserved moment of recognition for all Noah did that season for the Bulls.
After Bulls point guard Derrick Rose went down with another devastating injury ten games into the regular season, it looked as if the team would begin to fall apart. Some fans wanted the Bulls to purposely tank so the team could select Chicago-born Jabari Parker in the 2014 draft.
However, Noah wasn’t having any of this.
He took the leadership reins, rallied his teammates around him and helped lead a team with limited talent to 48 wins and a fourth seed in the Eastern Conference playoff picture.
Noah also anchored an outstanding defense that finished first in opponent points per game, second in opponent field goal percentage and second in defensive efficiency that season.
Noah’s award was memorable because it provided a tangible benchmark for how far he had come as a player and a person. He went from a player with major personal and skill-based limitations to the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year and a fourth-place finish in the NBA MVP voting.
The often-maligned player now had tangible proof that he had made it as an NBA player. He had silenced all those people who had criticized him for so many years.
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