By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Joakim Noah’s deep anti-war feelings were the reason he chose not to participate at a dinner of the New York Knicks with army cadets at the United States Military Academy in West Point.
The French center was the only player of his team not present in the event, as reported by Newsday.com. In fact, he also expressed his discomfort of having to spent a week of the training camp in a place related with soldiers and army.
“It’s hard for me a little bit,” said Noah. “I have a lot of respect for the kids who are out here fighting. But it’s hard for me to understand why we have to go to war, why kids have to kill kids around the world? So I have mixed feelings about being here.”
He then emphasized “I’m very proud of this country. I love America, but I just don’t understand kids killing kids around the world,” also adding that: “I’m not a very patriotic person to be honest. I don’t understand the whole flags, supporting flags. I’m more into supporting people.”
NY Knicks head coach Jeff Hornacek, fully understood his player’s decision. “Well, that’s his right. He wants to be a part of the team and do everything the team is doing. He just didn’t feel comfortable. We’re not going to pressure him into doing that. We had the speaker who I thought was fantastic. I told him, maybe we can get a little copy, if there’s a copy of the speech, just so he can hear some of it.”