LeBron James attracts many pests, but Joakim Noah might be the best player to ever beef with him

- NBA history includes a whole spectrum of guys that one could probably describe as loving them if they're on your team and hating them if they're the opponent. Joakim Noah has always been one of those guys. In his prime, he was known for being emotional and physical. He talked trash and backed it up with excellent play. While Jo's teammates may love him for all that, he has become an enemy to all opponents, and in the early 2010s, LeBron James was his opponent very, very often. We've established in Beef History canon that during the years LeBron's teams dominated the Eastern Conference, the playoff teams they crushed employed

player

s who built much of their NBA personas around needling the King.

Noah was n

ever

just a professional irritant to LeBron, he was one of the

best

player

s in the NBA in his prime. But like DeShawn Stevenson and Lance Stephenson, Noah's playoff runs hit dead ends, most of them LeBron-shaped and most of them peppered with chunks of meat. Let's go back. Joakim and LeBron are the same age, which is strange to you? It's a bit strange, right? But Noah came to the league four years later. When LeBron was a high school star dazzling at ABCD camps, Joakim was at the same camps working the hot dog stand. While LeBron went straight to the NBA after his senior year of high school, Joakim had a fifth year in high school and then became one of the less heralded recruits in Florida's much-hyped recruiting class of 2004.

Noah He became one of the most exciting prospects in the country and helped lead the Gators to the 2006 National Championship. Instead of jumping to the NBA and becoming an unquestionable lottery pick, Noah took a chance and stayed one more year. , and it turned out to be, one more championship against Ohio State, the team LeBron said he would have played for if he had left. to the university and to a team that represented LeBron even in his absence. Not important to the meat, just a bit of fun. Staying in college not only built Noah's reputation as a winner but also as a scoundrel.

The way he looked, the frenetic playing style of him and the emotional outbursts of him made him one of those guys we were talking about. Noah was sensitive to the volume of vitriol he attracted, but n

ever

toned down his personality. Not after the second title where he danced famously. Not in the NBA draft, where he did this. Noah was drafted ninth by the Bulls the same year a kid his age reached his first NBA Finals. Noah didn't play much as a rookie, but he behaved like a brat enough that his Bulls teammates voted to suspend him.

His only real connection to LeBron that season came distantly when Ben Wallace, one of the veterans who pushed hardest for Noah's suspension, was traded to the Cavs. LeBron commented that Wallace previously had to be the father of that young Bull team, including Noah. The first direct confrontation between Noah and James, more than just a simple basketball fight, would occur two seasons later. LeBron's Cavs loved to dance, and when they hosted the Bulls in December 2009, they were in great spirits, in the tunnel, during warmups, on the bench. In the fourth quarter, when Cleveland was going big and LeBron did a little celebratory move, Joakim had had enough.

Noah, of course known for celebrating, yelled at LeBron from the bench while he was shooting free throws. LeBron stepped out of the free throw line to confront Joakim and an argument ensued. Noah explained that his objection was showing off during an explosion. He respected LeBron, but when you're losing like the Bulls were losing, the dances get frustrating. LeBron insisted that the Cavs always danced. They were just fun kids who loved the game. But he also salted the wounds a bit for a guy who had shot just two of seven in a loss for a team that had started the season with plenty of those.

Those Bulls would turn their season around, at least enough to make the playoffs as an eighth seed. That meant a 2010 first-round matchup with LeBron and the Cavs, and leaving some more meat on the grill. Noah was eager to shock the world, but the Cavs swept Chicago in the first game. Joakim was embarrassed by a spin move from Shaq, 38, and after tangling with Anderson Varejao, he was booed every time he touched the ball. Noah said he had no friends on the Cavs except Danny Green. I didn't know him, I didn't care. But he had been getting to know the city of Cleveland and, speaking with TNT, he said some things that locals wouldn't like. - I'm just staying in my hotel room, man.

Every time I look out the window, it's pretty depressing out here, man. It's wrong, it's wrong. -LeBron dismissed the comment as a demand for attention. - I know he's one of those guys who really likes attention. -Though when a reporter joked that Noah also looked down on his hometown of Akron, he sobered for a second. -He said Akron sucks too. -Did he do it? - The Cavs beat the Bulls again in Game 2, and LeBron took the opportunity to embarrass Noah with a magnificent up-and-down. After that game, a reporter asked Noah if he regretted Cleveland's comments. He did not do it. - I mean, I've never heard anyone say, "I'm going to Cleveland on vacation." What's so good about Cleveland? - And Noah followed it up with a decent third game in Chicago.

He stripped LeBron on a crucial possession in the final minute, did some kung fu to deny him a crucial rebound in the last second, and helped Chicago to the win. Noah continued to impress, in fact he impressed LeBron, with a 21-point, 20-rebound performance in Game 4, but Cleveland dominated that game and ended up taking the series in five. However, Noah had established himself as a professional, not just a pest, not just a talker, a true rising star. LeBron became a free agent that summer and reunited with the Bulls because they not only had cap space, but also young talent like Noah and Derrick Rose.

It would have been a great team, but it didn't happen. The decision was to join Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh to form a new Miami Heat big trio that Noah immediately dubbed Team Hollywood, which yeah, fair. Chicago outscored Miami that season, posting an NBA-

best

62 and 20. Noah missed much of that season after hand surgery, but returned in time to close out the Bulls' sweep of the Heat in the regular season with a good defense in the final by LeBron. Shooting. Those two best teams in their conference met in the 2011 Eastern Conference finals. Chicago's defense locked down LeBron in the first game, but from there, the lesser regular-season team took over the series .

As Miami packed its bags for the NBA Finals, all Noah could do was throw out backhanded compliments. -Miami is a great team. They're Hollywood as hell, but they're still very good. - Chicago and Miami were once again one and two in the East in 2012, but Rose's injury early in the playoffs derailed a potential conference finals rematch. And Rose was still out the following year, leaving Noah to lead the Bulls. Chicago struggled that season, but Noah became an All Star and they had some success against Miami. Noah committed a flagrant foul on LeBron in a Bulls win in January 2013.

But he was sidelined with a foot injury when Chicago stopped Miami's record 27-game winning streak in March. Once again, the playoffs brought the Bulls and Heat together. The Bulls without Rose were doomed, but Noah made sure they went down fighting. In the second game, Noah received a technical foul for struggling a bit with LeBron and then was ejected at the end of a blowout loss. In the Game 3 loss, Noah became a meme for applauding obnoxiously while LeBron and Chris Bosh berated Mario Chalmers. But that was the best Joakim could do. Miami won in five and then won everything.

Noah insisted he didn't care, but then admitted that he didn't feel good about it at all. And the Heat had to rub their nose in the next season, handing out their rings on opening night with the Bulls in town. That would be another bad year for the Bulls and for the meat. LeBron expressed respect for his All Star teammate. - One of the best big men we have in our game. He has been running up and down the board every game. You know what he's capable of doing, both offensively and defensively. -Noah still talked a lot of nonsense in a regular-season win over the Heat, after which he said the Bulls played with a lot of hate.

He just desperately wanted to beat LeBron, but that would never happen with the King in Miami, not on the biggest stage. In the 2014 offseason, LeBron returned to Cleveland and the Central Division. Noah said he was happy for his rival and hoped to kick her ass as much as possible. The games that season were the usual ones, the occasional hard foul and a bit of fighting. Like in April, when Noah pulled a classic annoying guy move and tried to snatch a dead ball to start the next possession. That led to an argument, which led Noah to call James.

After that, Noah was eager to meet LeBron again in the postseason and finally get a win over him in the playoffs. And he had a chance at it. The Bulls and Cavs met in 2015 in the second round, a big enough opportunity that Noah said he was really excited to go to Cleveland. LeBron compared Joakim to his teammate, Kendrick Perkins, alluding to that archetype of player that you hate competing against but love if he is your teammate. Well, Joakim complied. In the third game of that series, Noah said something to James that apparently crossed a line. LeBron said, "I'm a father of three." He became very disrespectful. "I'm fine with competing against Jo." I love the competitive nature, "but we should leave it at that." The disrespectful words he said to me "were out of line." Whatever it was, it was enough that later in the game, LeBron dunked on Noah and then attacked him, enough to draw a technical foul, which only got Jo going again.

In fact, Chicago took a two-to-one lead after that game, but it would be the highlight, in terms of meat and Bulls performance, in a Cavs victory in six games. And that was practically the end. The Bulls fell apart and Noah missed most of the next season. He joined the Knicks in 2016, just in time to attend another LeBron ring ceremony on opening night. He still seemed hungry to face LeBron in the postseason. - To get where we want to go, we have to beat that guy. - But that wasn't in the cards for the Knicks. As they hit their 30s, LeBron was trying to get more rings in Los Angeles, while Noah was trying to stay.

In fact, he considered joining forces with LeBron and then there were rumors that he

might

train for the cross-town rival. But everyone knows that the real meat of this meat is a thing of the past. Noah was one of the best players on one of the best opponents that LeBron had to defeat to reach the Finals, however, Joakim left Chicago with a record of five and 16 in playoff games against LeBron's teams spread over four series . He suffered the same fate as

many

other notable LeBron haters, but I think his performance commanded more respect than any of them, even though his conduct was equally disrespectful.

LeBron never fell to Joakim Noah, but he really, really, really hated playing against him and that counts too.