Joakim Noah didn’t exactly make peace with Cleveland’s basketball history overnight. But years after battling the Cavaliers, he found himself standing in the snow in the city and looking at a cap that carried the words “Cavaliers” and “champions” - a phrase he once couldn’t even bring himself to say.
“I wish it was us, but I'm happy you guys got it,” Noah said, offering his hand.
That moment is part of a feature on Noah’s life after basketball by The Athletic’s Joel Lorenzi and Jeshua Kidd, based on three days he spent in Cleveland in late January. It captures the old edge of the rivalry, but also Noah’s willingness to acknowledge what the city finally got.
Cleveland’s title came 10 years ago, when the Cavaliers beat Golden State in seven games for the first championship in franchise history. The team finished 57-25 that regular season, with David Blatt beginning the year as head coach before Tyronn Lue took over in January.
Noah had plenty of history with the Cavaliers long before that championship run. Cleveland knocked out his Chicago Bulls in five games in the 2010 first round and again in six games in the 2015 Eastern Conference semifinals. By the 2015-16 season, the one that ended with the title, Noah was in his final year with Chicago.
Drafted ninth overall in 2007 out of Florida after winning two NCAA championships, Noah spent 13 NBA seasons across Chicago, New York, Memphis and the Clippers. He played 672 regular-season games and averaged 8.8 points, 9.0 rebounds and 2.8 assists, with nine of those seasons coming in Chicago.
His peak came in 2013-14, when he posted career bests of 12.6 points, 11.3 rebounds and 5.4 assists. That season he won Defensive Player of the Year, becoming the first Bull to do it since Michael Jordan in 1987-88.
Chicago allowed a league-low 91.8 points per game, Noah made the All-NBA First Team, and he finished fourth in MVP voting. His résumé also includes two All-Star selections, three All-Defensive nods and the J.
Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award in 2015.
Noah’s view of Cleveland clearly wasn’t softened much by October 2016, either. When the Knicks opened that season in Cleveland on the night the Cavaliers received their championship rings, he still leaned into the old jab.
"Even though it's not a vacation spot, you guys got your championship," he said, according to the New York Daily News.
The Cleveland stop was filmed for "Nomad," Noah’s travel series on the YouTube channel of NBAT2, the NBA and Take-Two Interactive’s joint venture. The series premiered Nov. 11, 2025, beginning with an episode in Chicago featuring Derrick Rose. Morocco, Serbia and Jamaica came next, and the Cleveland episode ran about 18 minutes when it debuted the first weekend of April.
The Cavaliers have stayed relevant since that title, reaching the Eastern Conference finals last season for the first time since 2018. They beat Toronto and Detroit before the Knicks swept them in four games.
Since then, Dean Wade has left for Philadelphia, Keon Ellis for Brooklyn and Larry Nance Jr. for Indiana. Mario Hezonja signed a one-year, $2.8 million deal that is non-guaranteed until Nov. 15, and the Peyton Watson sign-and-trade stretched four years and $88 million, leaving Cleveland without a tradable first-round pick.
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