John Paxson drew some heat when he selected Joakim Noah ninth overall in 2007, one selection before Spencer Hawes.
It turned out OK.
Derrick Rose’s arrival one year later formed a foundation along with Luol Deng and others to push the Chicago Bulls into championship contention. At the center of it always was Noah, the Bulls’ emotional leader.
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Chicago sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
The Bulls will honor Noah Thursday night at the United Center with a night celebrating his career. Recently, Paxson, now a senior adviser who has served the Bulls in some capacity for 36 years, sat down with NBC Sports Chicago to discuss Noah’s impact on the franchise.
NBC Sports Chicago: How would you describe Joakim as a person?
Paxson: To me, he’s the most real and true-to-himself player. There’s no phoniness to him. Beyond that, he had a way of connecting with everybody. So much of it was just passion. He had this huge care factor. Obviously, Cecilia (Rodhe) and his Dad (Yannick Noah) did an unbelievable job raising him. But there’s also something inside him that you just don’t see often in professional athletes.
NBC Sports Chicago: Did that come out in the draft process?
NBA
Paxson: Yeah, it did. What came out then was how much he cared. We were sitting there with the ninth pick. And some of the teams ahead of us, he really didn’t want to play there. He loved the idea of Chicago. We had gotten on board with the idea of drafting him. We wanted to make that happen. That was one of the really good nights in the draft room.
NBC Sports Chicago: Did you project him to eventually become an All-Star and top-five MVP vote getter?
Paxson: None of us are ever that smart. But I always knew he’d get the most out of his ability.
The thing I will always think back on when I think about Jo is the first time I saw him play. He was a freshman at Florida. And they were playing in (Madison Square) Garden. And (then-Florida, now Bulls coach) Billy (Donovan) at the time was doing a lot of fullcourt pressure. And Jo was this young, gangly guy changing ends relentlessly. Just his enthusiasm to play, you could just tell there was something there. I remember telling our guys, "Keep your eyes on this guy. He plays hard all the time."
NBC Sports Chicago: He had such a positive impact on the locker room.
Paxson: He was always about the team and always about winning. The year we signed him to an extension (in 2010), he took less than he could’ve got in the open market because he loved being here. He wanted to bring a championship to Chicago so badly.
NBC Sports Chicago: Do you have a favorite play from his career?
Paxson: The easy one is Boston and the steal (from the 2009 playoffs). That just typifies Jo in everything he does. It shows it all right there.
NBC Sports Chicago: Were you surprised he reached the heights he did in 2013-14 when he won Defensive Player of the Year and finished fourth in MVP voting?
Paxson: He was underrated. People kind of focus on things outside basketball. When you really drill down to who he was as a player, his passing is really underrated. You could run offense through him. He ran the floor really well. That year showed his character as a player and a teammate.
The great thing from my seat is getting to know him and watching him evolve as a person. I think about this often with him because many people early on kind of judged him. They point to the draft night and the seersucker suit and his wild hair. And he’s the perfect story. That young man has a heart of gold. He is one of the best representatives of what this organization is about that we’ve ever had.