Joakim Noah to begin 20-game suspension

New York Knicks center, Joakim Noah (211 cm, Florida’07) has been cleared by team doctors to play and will begin serving a 20-game suspension. The NBA suspended French-American big man after he tested positive for a banned substance. Noah had been dealing with multiple injuries throughout the 2016-17 season and bought an over-the-counter supplement that contained a component that caused him to fail the drug test. Noah was apologetic, both to the team and its fans for the disappointing results of his actions.

“I want to just start by saying I made a mistake. It was a tough year for me, for this team. I want to start by apologizing to my teammates, to the Knicks, to the organization,” Noah said. “I let a lot of people down. It was a mistake. And I gotta learn from it and bounce back. This is a tough moment and I’m going to learn from it. I tried to take a supplement to help me with everything that I was going through. I’ve gone through a lot of injuries and I tried to take something to help me and it backfired. So I know it didn’t come from a bad place. I was working with the league on this for a while. I think the punishment of 20 games is severe. But it is what it is and I gotta bounce back.”

Because there are less than 20 games left in the season and the Knicks are out of the playoff race, the suspension will carry over into the 2017-18 regular season.