Chicago Bulls center Joakim Noah is known for being outspoken. Apparently, the apple didn’t fall too far from the tree.
Noah’s father, Yannick Noah, a retired tennis professional, incensed Rafael Nadal with recent comments he made to a French newspaper, Le Monde, where he implied Spanish tennis players are putting opponents at a disadvantage because they’re taking performance enhancing drugs or as Noah called it “the magic potion” according to the Morning Star and USA Today.
“How can a country (Spain) dominate sport from one day to the next?” Noah asked according to ESPN. “Had they discovered avant-garde training techniques and methods that no one else imagined?”
Nadal ripped Noah for his remarks after he completed his opening victory match in the ATP World Tour Finals.
From the Morning Star:
“What he said is completely stupid. This guy does not deserve to write in newspapers anymore.” He added: “He knows better than anybody that to say that today is a totally stupid thing because you know how many anti-doping controls we have during the season, year by year.
“So in my opinion, the article that he wrote was from a kid and when one kid says something it’s not painful for us.”
Tennis is the last sport one thinks of in terms of PEDs, but I guess anything is possible.