Noah's improvement a sight for sore eyes at United Center
Bulls fans obviously have long memories. They booed Tyson Chandler frequently during Saturday's game against Charlotte.
Now, Tyson is one of the nicest people you'll ever meet, NBA player or not. So it was natural to ask, "What did he do to deserve the boos?"
It was probably more what he didn't do. Every time Chandler made a good play during Charlotte's 93-90 loss, the boos grew louder, as if to say, "Why didn't you do more of that for the Bulls instead of against them?"
During the early part of this decade, the Bulls seemed to waste several seasons waiting in vain for young players to improve. Heck, Chandler was one of their more successful projects, but he peaked at 9.7 rebounds and 8.0 points in 2004-05 and never developed many offensive skills.
When guys like Kirk Hinrich, Luol Deng, Ben Gordon and Andres Nocioni showed up knowing how to play, the Bulls became a playoff team.
Fast forward to the Joakim Noah experience and it's been a revelation to see a young Bulls big man display such rapid improvement right before our eyes. Against Chandler's Bobcats on Saturday, Noah piled up 21 points, 16 rebounds and 4 blocks.
"I know I'm not going to score 21 points every night," Noah said. "I want to stay consistent with my rebounding and my defensive effort. I feel like offensively, I'm just going to try to clean up the glass."
Noah is still a work in progress, but he's gotten much stronger in two years, can get his ugly jump shot to fall and has even thrown in a few hook shots this season.
At the start of his rookie year, Noah seemed to be a dud. He didn't produce, struggled to learn the schemes and might have become the first player in league history to be suspended by the vote of his teammates.
Noah started slowly again in his second season. New Jersey's Brook Lopez was chosen with the No. 9 pick a year after Noah. At that point, some fans might have gladly traded Noah for Robin Lopez.
"The NBA thing, it happens so fast," Noah said. "We're just really lucky and really privileged to be in this situation. All these experiences I'm going through, I feel like they're helping me as a player and a person. So I feel like I'm going through all of it."
A couple things working in Noah's favor was he'd been part of Florida's successful program in college and his father, Yannick, was an excellent athletic role model.
"We actually used to jog a lot," Joakim said. "When I was in high school, he would wake me up in the morning sometimes and it was just a good time to bond with him. A lot of Central Park jogs before school. Not long, like just 25 minutes. But there weren't a lot of high school kids who were jogging."
Yannick Noah, who attended Saturday's game, was a world-class tennis player who became a pop music sensation in France.
"I always remember watching my father running and jogging and doing extra things," Noah said. "He was someone who always took it pretty seriously."
It's probably too soon to suggest Noah as an all-star, but he may not be far from it. Orlando's Dwight Howard figures to be the East's all-star center for the next 10 or 20 years.
Whoever is considered the center in Toronto between Chris Bosh (28.5 points per game, 11.8 rebounds per game) and Andrea Bargnani (20.7, 6.8) might rank No. 2 in the East. After that, there's a logjam of decent big men.
Noah (11.3 points, 11.0 rebounds) is certainly in the mix with Brook Lopez (18.0, 7.7), Milwaukee's Andrew Bogut (13.8, 9.0), Miami's Jermaine O'Neal (14.7, 7.8), Washington's Brendan Haywood (11.5, 10.8) and an up-and-comer in Indiana's Roy Hibbert (11.0, 10.4).
The rough early start to his pro career seemed to give Noah a humble perspective. Even after a brilliant performance on Saturday, he still talked about areas he could improve.
"I feel like my conditioning is still not 100 percent to where I want it to be," he said. "I'm just trying to take it one game at a time and pick my spots where I'm effective on the court."
Just keep doing what he's doing and Bulls fans will always be appreciative.