By Michael Tapia – Add Joakim Noah to the Kevin Garnett hater club, the Chicago Bulls’ center is the latest basketball player to express his discomfort towards the Boston Celtics’ power forward. Noah’s rant comes just a week after we learned about Garnett’s issues with Charlie Villanueva’s alopecia disease. According to Villanueva who is another big man in the league playing for Detroit, Garnett called him a “cancer patient”.
While being interviewed in Chicago sports radio Noah had this to say about his counterpart, “Kevin Garnett will not — will not — get a Christmas gift from me”. Noah’s twinge for Garnett extends to such degree that he went from being a fan to disliking the man. Noah testifies that he had Garnett’s poster in his room and even wore his jersey growing up. To make matters worse, what troubles Noah the most about this situation is how highly he regarded Garnett as a basketball player before entering the NBA in 2007.
Noah adds, “And he was very mean to me my rookie year. And he’s only mean to the young guys and the [European players], for some reason. I don’t know why, but that’s who he doesn’t like. He’s not nice.” Noah does admit that he is an instigator as well saying, “I talk a lot of trash out there, but c’mon, be a little sensitive. Be sweet.”
Some people around the league believe that this rivalry started, or perhaps escalated, during last season’s playoffs when Garnett was suspended for throwing an elbow at Quentin Richardson. Noah who was in Cleveland playing against the Cavaliers grumbled that Garnett was a “dirty player.”
In the end Noah still thinks that Garnett still goes over the top with his antics saying, “He’s a very mean guy,” “Where’s the love? None at all. Ugly, too.”
It seems as if more people think Garnett is not a very nice guy. Perhaps the incident involving Villanueva was just trash talking, but when you call someone a cancer patient because they’re bald and an up and coming talent goes from admiring you to despising you someone needs to reassess their actions.
The Bulls are scheduled to play the Celtics on December 3, it will be compelling to see how high the stakes reach.
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