Noah a big fan of Broncos’ Tebow
Some of America’s football fans may be tired of hearing about Denver quarterback Tim Tebow.
Not Joakim Noah. He probably won’t root against the Bears today when they take on the Broncos, but he’s definitely a fan of Tebow, a former classmate at the University of Florida.
“I had a class with him,” Noah said. “The guy’s the real deal. He’s a very humble guy and his teammates love him. They battle for him every night.
“He might not throw the ball great — that’s all everybody wants to talk about. But at the same time, people really underestimate the fact that his guys really go to bat for him and it was the same way at Florida.”
Tebow doesn’t apologize for being devoutly religious and Noah is OK with that.
“There’s no lie about who he is,” Noah said. “Me personally, I have completely different beliefs than him, but at the same time, I respect the fact that he speaks his truth. He’s a warrior. He’s a winner. If he wasn’t a real person, maybe his teammates wouldn’t respect him that much.”
Pain against Spain:Joakim Noah talked Saturday about the pain of losing to Miami in the Eastern Conference finals last season.But he was on the floor for another significant loss this year. He played for the French national team, which dropped the title game of the European championships to Spain.#147;Losing always hurts. Of course, beating Spain in the championship would have been great,#148; Noah said. #147;We definitely lost to a better team and that#146;s the truth. They had a lot of experience. They#146;d been playing together for along time.#147;There were definitely positives out of it as well. We qualified for the (2012) Olympics. We get to represent France for the Olympics and that#146;s a big deal. French basketball is probably like the fifth or sixth sport out there.#148;Rose takes blame:When the Bulls began practice, Derrick Rose made another pitch to bring back Keith Bogans, who started every game at shooting guard last season.#147;KB#146;s always been a good vet to me,#148; Rose said. #147;I#146;m fine with the team I have. I don#146;t know what#146;s going on right now, who might be coming in or whatever. But the team I have, I thought we were good. The reason we lost last year was because of me not making the right plays. Not passing to my teammates when they were open; just not making that extra pass.#148;