Joakim Noah

Ayahuasca allows you to have real conversations with your ancestors in another realm

You go back, you go back and you have real conversations with your people. You know, you go to another realm... The medicine brought me places that definitely put me at peace with things that were, I had turmoil in my system.

Chemistry is the most underrated aspect of sports

Something very underrated about sports in general. People always underestimate chemistry. You know, we could talk about stats and the star player and this and that, but when you enjoy playing with somebody, I think those guys look, there's eight guys scoring 10 points on the bulls.

The European basketball development system is superior to the US AAU system

Great development system out there [in France]... They coach it as a team sport. It's not the superstar thing. And if you have a shot to be an NBA prospect, you have like the top French general managers coming to your house... For the development of the game, there needs to be a change [in the US].

The Celtics are the heavy favorites in the East, but the Cavaliers will make it a battle

Boston is definitely the heavy favorite. Until somebody beats Boston, they're the team to beat... but do not disrespect the Cleveland Cavaliers because they're ready to rock and roll. And if you think there's gonna be an easy sweep, no, no, no, no. Don't get it twisted. You're in for a real battle.

If the Bulls were healthy, we would have beaten LeBron's Heat

I really felt like if we were healthy we would've got 'em, you know? But it was cool 'cause it wasn't, it wasn't, it was a thing where it wasn't just Chicago that was rooting against them. It was the whole, the whole country was rooting against the heat. Yes. And we were the team that kind of had a shot. We're going up against, you know, the other side of just free agency and super team we're like, yo fuck all that shit.

Victor Wembanyama is the real deal but will face early growing pains

He got the whole, you know, he's like, kid's the real deal, you know, left pull up everywhere. Left. Right. You know, handle seven foot three. I mean, we haven't seen anything like that. I think there's gonna be, you know, some growing pains. But he got the perfect coach with Pop who's gonna just sit him down and be like, yo young fella, just take it easy.

Jimmy Butler once went an entire summer without watching TV to focus on his game

Jimmy's probably the toughest competitor I've ever been around. And you know, it started right away. He worked his ass off and you know, the sacrifices that he made in the summers were just unbelievable. I mean, people don't know this, but he was going whole summers, no tv.

The Chicago Bulls would have won the 2012 NBA Championship if Derrick Rose hadn't suffered an ACL injury.

If Derrick Rose doesn't go down... I think we're holding the trophy. We're the best team in the league. We got the job in my mind still to this day. There's no question. Nobody was fucking with us.

Kevin Garnett's refusal to be friendly on the court changed Joakim Noah's career and taught him 'no love in battle'.

I remember asking [KG] a question... just trying to be cool like I would just wanted to be I just want to say something to my idol and he just like looked over and he was like... who the fuck you think you talking to... that moment right there changed everything... I learned that there's no love in battle.