Why I am rooting for Joakim Noah, maybe you as well.
Who is Joakim Noah?
He is the key player of the Florida Gators who stars at Power Forward and Center. He led the team to the championships in 06 and hope to duplicate the feat once again. The Florida Gators will take on Ohio State tonite in what is expected to be a nail biter of a finish.
I really shouldn’t care. My brackets (all 8 of them) are busted. Syracuse was snubbed by the selection committee. Being a sports addict, I plan to flip back and forth from the game and the high suspense antics of CTU Agent Jack Bauer on ‘24′.
Then I came across a candid interview done by Yahoo Sports reporter John Akers with Joakim Noah. We learn a side of an athlete that is rarely examined or expressed in recent memory: political activism. Noah openly expressed his opposition to the Iraq War and basically Bush’s policies as President. He also sees a correlation between him and college basketball great Bill Walton. Not in ability or talent, but his political anti-war efforts in denouncing the Vietnam war.
Noah’s words on Walton and Activism:
“Off the court, yeah, I share his views about the way I feel about the war,” Noah said. “I’m against the war. I don’t understand it, and I’m not scared to speak about how I feel about things like that.
“To me, when I hear about Bill Walton, I think, ‘Oh, yeah, he was a hippie.’ But he was so much more than that. It was so much more than being a liberal or a Democrat. It was interesting to see that this guy stepped up and was inspired and spoke his mind. He didn’t let that, ‘OK, I’m an All-American and everybody is going to hear what I say, so I’m not going to say anything and ruin my image.’ I respect that. I respect players who aren’t afraid to speak their mind.”
Now you have inspired us Joakim. Your courage to risk your ambivalence and stature as an ‘All-American’ to express your passion agains the Iraq war regardless of backlash should be a lesson for all of us - Resilency. Many of us at times feel bogged down and repressed-feeling our years of protests, letters, rallies, and vigils have not been fleeting in memory or forgotten by our leaders in Washington. It can be very easy to slip back to ambivalence and go on with every day life - flip the channel away from the coverage of the war, delete e-mails from activists instantly, and stop writing to your elected leaders. I know I have at times.
Joakim hasn’t lost his drive to express his political values are now placing everything on the line to be outspoken on ending the Iraq war.
Definitely check out the entire article on Yahoo Sports to read more:
‘Center of Attention’ by John Akers
Thanks Joakim for raising our spirits and expressing your opposition to the war.
CHOMP CHOMP.
(Unless Cuse) Go Gators!
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I’m not gonna lie, I don’t like Florida, but that primarily is a result of lingering feelings of rivalry from the late 1980’s when Billy Donovan was a player at Providence. I’ve always felt like he got too much press, etc. But, I respected each and every one of his players decisions to come back to college. I think this is probably one of the best teams in recent memory and now after reading this article there certainly seems to be another reason to AT LEAST respect the Gators.
And if you never saw Joakim’s father (Yannick) play tennis, you really missed an event. He was more fun to watch (with his flowing dreadlocks) than any other player I have ever seen.
He played with all he had, every time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yannick_Noah
Noah’s postgame interview was not quite so eloquent. Could any of you make out what he was talking about?
I had no clue. He was exhausted, yet excited about winning obviously. We might have to go back to the tape for that one Dickie V.
Now that we’ve broken the sports barrier, I can’t wait to put a giant:
Logo on the front page after the Sabres win the Cup!
I’m a UCLA alumni. This was just painful to watch. I do remember Yannick Noah playing tennis and didn’t know he was this Noah’s father. Nice politics but did they have to squash UCLA? And then the Red Sox lost too on Opening Day. Bad sports weekend for me…