Bulls’ Noah arrested for possession of marijuana

[ducks]

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP)—Authorities in Gainesville have charged Chicago Bulls forward and former Florida star Joakim Noah with possession of marijuana and having an open container of alcohol.

Gainesville police spokesman Sgt. Rick Roberts says Noah was arrested around 1:50 a.m. Sunday after an officer spotted him on a sidewalk holding a plastic cup containing an amber drink, a violation of city law. During a search at the station, officers found marijuana in his pocket.

Noah was released after signing a notice to appear before a judge—standard procedure for such offenses. He could face up to 6 months in jail and a $500 fine for the marijuana charge.

Noah led the Gators to back-to-back national championships before being picked ninth overall in last June’s draft by the Bulls.

[PacerFan]

Joakim Noah smokes weed? Holy shit, I am completely caught off guard.

[fishrap]

Gee who would ever have thunk it!

[balli]

Hell yes Noah! He's going to make a great martyr.

[Kriz-Maxima]

shocking!

[J Zone]

Idiot

[Mr.Bottomtooth]

They later discovered traces of cocaine in his ponytail.

[balli]

Idiot


Suck a dick. Using or getting busted for marijuana by some over-zealous cop doesn't make one an idiot. Guarantee Noah's IQ is higher than yours.

[Burn531]

This guy smokes weed? http://images.sportsbybrooks.com/f/f/ff048b1980cd14825ed17c7099ce2811_joakimnoah.jpg

:wow

[Trainwreck2100]

Even more reason for Josh howard to get traded to the Bulls

[bdictjames]

Wow, there goes half of my respect for that guy.

[JamStone]

No shit Sherlock forum.

[balli]

Wow, there goes half of my respect for that guy.

Wow, you're a dumbass bigot.

[Bob Lanier]

Wow, you're a dumbass bigot.
and a hypocrite taboot, when any idiot can tell beyond a shadow of a doubt that Timmy's one of the biggest tokers in the Association.

http://z.about.com/d/sanantonio/1/0/o/A/-/-/spurs07duncan.jpg

[PacerFan]

and a hypocrite taboot, when any idiot can tell beyond a shadow of a doubt that Timmy's one of the biggest tokers in the Association.

http://z.about.com/d/sanantonio/1/0/o/A/-/-/spurs07duncan.jpg

Oh boy, here comes WW3

[J Zone]

Suck a dick. Using or getting busted for marijuana by some over-zealous cop doesn't make one an idiot. Guarantee Noah's IQ is higher than yours.

lmao @ this faggot

attacking me because this fucking retard got caught doing something illegal. and you tell me he's not an idiot.

[balli]

Oh boy, here comes WW3

http://www.spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=91266

[balli]

attacking me because this fucking retard got caught doing something illegal. and you tell me he's not an idiot.

I didn't attack you because Noah got caught doing something illegal. I attacked you because you are being a bigot and a douche about it. Learn the difference (i.e. learn to read) you fucking pussy.

[PacerFan]

http://www.spurstalk.com/forums/show...duncan+pothead

lol that went well

[J Zone]

I didn't attack you because Noah got caught doing something illegal. I attacked you because you are being a fucking bigot and a douche about it. Now fuck off.

How am I a douche?? and a bigot?

you can tell all this about me for the one single word I posted??

.. I didn't call him a fucking IDIOT for what he did, I called him an IDIOT for getting busted:lol


anyway, I don't really give a fuck, later.

[balli]

.. I didn't call him a fucking IDIOT for what he did, I called him an IDIOT for getting busted:lol

In which case I apologize. Either way Noah's not an idiot.

[Flo-Rida]

Joakim Noah smokes weed? Holy shit, I am completely caught off guard.

:lol

[Capt Bringdown]

We can't even begin to dream what it must be like to be so gifted and blessed...getting paid millions of dollars for playing kid's games. What a shame and waste to get involved with drugs.

I hope he is prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

[T Park]

Genius move Noah.

Your a multi millionaire basketball player, and you can't act like an adult.

Great job.

[SRJ]

You're a bigot now if you're against illegal drug use. Wow.

Cue the "truth about the benefits of marijuana" laundry list in 3, 2, 1....

[Bob Lanier]

Your a multi millionaire basketball player, and you can't act like an adult.
He was showing that long before his private life became public.

He acts like Alonzo Mourning.

[LocosPorJuana]

He gets a pass, at least from me. I mean He is just a different type of cat, kind of like ricky williams. Had ricky played running back in the late 60's, the guy would have been an icon for his generation. You hear guys like ricky, noah, adam morrison, pau, manu, speak on social issues and you realize how smart they are. with that said, it has not been a good year for noah. His teammates banned him from practice and now this.



Kids, don't do drugs:nope

[Bob Lanier]

You're a bigot now if you're against illegal drug use.
You can also be a fool.

[remingtonbo2001]

He's capable of making mistakes, just as any other man.

Cut him some slack. Hopefully he is able to grow from this situation.

[SRJ]

You can also be a fool.

Damn, I just got owned.

[Indazone]

I think Josh Howard is right. A majority of NBA players smoke during the offseason or in the privacy of their own homes. Duncan certainly looks like he's done a few bowls in his day. Anyway, I knew a dude at the university I went to. He supported his entire way through school by growing weed and selling it to the basketball team. Apparently he figured out how to concentrate the THC content to over 400 times the normal plant. Now this guy is in charge of on of our plutonium processing plants. Kinda makes ya think doesn't it? lol

[lefty]

Noah : " Marijuana makes me look pretty "

[ElNono]

I bet the 5 bags of Funnyons in his car gave him away

[colargol]

it's just a mistake........he was saving it for his father.......

[The Franchise]

If you have to smoke, why not do it before you leave the house? When you're famous you already have the spotlight on you. That is compounded even further when you're 7 ft. tall!!! I'm not going to call the kid dumb, but walking around with a drink and pocket full of weed in his position was fucking stupid.

[pawe]

At least he's not drunk and driving while jacking off to a porn dvd and crashing into a parked car ala Griffin (RIP)

[trueD]

If you have to smoke, why not do it before you leave the house? When you're famous you already have the spotlight on you. That is compounded even further when you're 7 ft. tall!!! I'm not going to call the kid dumb, but walking around with a drink and pocket full of weed in his position was fucking stupid.

Totally agree.

And further, "Noah, YOU'RE A DIMBULB!".

What a waste (pun intended). Hopefully, for the sake of the NBA and his personal career, he smartens up.

[Leetonidas]

If you have to smoke, why not do it before you leave the house? When you're famous you already have the spotlight on you. That is compounded even further when you're 7 ft. tall!!! I'm not going to call the kid dumb, but walking around with a drink and pocket full of weed in his position was fucking stupid.

I can tell you it's a lot more fun to smoke blunts or joints while driving or just out of your house, but I understand what you mean, seeing how he IS an NBA player and draws a lot of attention to himself.

[mardigan]

Damn, it was just weed. Shit is barely even illegal anymore. It was stupid walking around with it with an open container of alcohol, but I couldnt give a shit if pro athletes smoke herb, especially with all the other fucked up shit you hear about athletes doing nowdays.

[LakeShow]

He probably forgot he had it in his pockets. No big deal, just pay the fine and move on. Me personally, I never leave home without it.:hat

[Indazone]

Just legalize it

[z0sa]

I can tell you it's a lot more fun to smoke blunts or joints while driving or just out of your house, but I understand what you mean, seeing how he IS an NBA player and draws a lot of attention to himself.

eh ...

i find smoking weed a lot better in my home.

[greyforest]

You're a bigot now if you're against illegal drug use. Wow.


when you lump "illegal drugs" in to one big category you are pretty ignorant

[balli]

^ And you're not a bigot for being against illegal drug use. You're a bigot if you automatically characterize and label people who participate in or get prosecuted for their marijuana use as idiots who deserve no respect.

[Leetonidas]

He probably forgot he had it in his pockets. No big deal, just pay the fine and move on. Me personally, I never leave home without it.:hat

Hell yeah! :smokin

[PacerFan]

Noah isn't dumb for smoking weed, he is dumb for putting himself in a prime position to get busted.

[Indazone]

Noah isn't dumb for smoking weed, he is dumb for putting himself in a prime position to get busted.

^ Truth

[SRJ]

And you're not a bigot for being against illegal drug use. You're a bigot if you automatically characterize and label people who participate in or get prosecuted for their marijuana use as idiots who deserve no respect.

Thanks, God.

[balli]

What do you mean by that? Are you implying that I was trying to play God when making the above statement? I sure hope not.

[Spurminator]

This is more of a non-story than the contents of my morning stool.

[balli]

http://blogs.hoopshype.com/blogs/smith/2008/05/27/booze-not-pot-the-real-problem/


I was reading the report last weekend of Chicago Bulls center Joakim Noah being arrested back at the U. of Florida for marijuana possession. And I’m thinking, “Why is this news? Isn’t it news if it was reported Noah—have you ever looked at or listened to this guy?—wasn’t using marijuana?”

But here we go again with NBA reefer madness with Noah and a month or so ago the dumbest player in the NBA—that certainly would be Josh Howard now in what no longer appears a close contest—volunteered he’s a regular offseason marijuana user and figured it was no big deal because it’s use was commonplace in the NBA.

Geez, didn’t anyone ever give this guy that speech about if your friend jumped off a building or told the world he was committing a crime would you do it, too?

Anyway, this all hardly qualifies as an epidemic, though many would have you wringing your hands and again lamenting the social ills of the NBA. Yes, back in 2001, Charles Oakley decided that maybe 50 to 60 percent of the players in the NBA used marijuana. A few years later, the Rocky Mountain News surveyed NBA players and from a sample of about 60 decided that some 30 percent of the players were using the drug.

Both of these accounts followed a 1997 New York Times report of substance abuse among NBA players and threw out a figure of 60 to 70 percent, though lost in the fine print was no real distinction between alcohol and marijuana.

And, yes, there’s the rub.

I know, I know, marijuana is illegal and alcohol is not.

But this should give pause to everyone who reads and reacts to headlines of NBA players using or being arrested in connection with marijuana.

I don’t know how many players in the NBA use marijuana, though we do know now about Noah. We’ve previously heard issues with Allen Iverson, Chris Webber, Robert Parish, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Rasheed Wallace and at one time most of Portland, though it is a particularly liberal place.

Of course, we’ve also heard the same about former President Bill Clinton, who insisted he didn’t inhale, and now U.S. Senator Barack Obama, who also wrote in his first book about experimenting with “blow,” the street name for cocaine.

Using Aristotelian logic, perhaps this means more NBA players than we think could be running for president, though in the Democratic party. Which might not be a bad thing because perhaps they’d be too mellow to be declaring war so often.

But I digress.

Actually, two issues strike me when these NBA drug scare stories arise.

One, of course, is the shocking notion that young men in their 20’s might be experimenting with a mild drug that men in their 20’s who’ve gone on to be the leaders of our nation experimented with when they were in their 20’s.

That is what your 20’s generally are for. There’s an old saying about socialism from Winston Churchill that says if a man is not a socialist by the time he is 20, he has no heart.

If he is not a conservative by the time he is 40, he has no brain. The point is your 20’s is for asking and answering questions and experimenting with life.

So marijuana should be legalized, right? It’s not legal, so that’s the answer for now. It’s also illegal to file taxes that do not perfectly represent your income and expenses and to go over the speed limit when driving. But I’m told it’s happened.

The larger question to me being around the NBA is the effect of alcohol.

The NBA has a drug testing policy, probably the toughest in sports and for the longest time since cocaine use was a major issue in the late 1970’s and the players wanted it cleaned up. All players are tested for drugs including marijuana up to four times per season.

Do some players in the NBA still get away with using marijuana? Sure. I’ve heard some names, though they don’t invite me along. What’s the percentage? Who the heck knows?

I believe it’s far less than any of the estimates thrown around. Though I do know alcohol abuse is rampant and I’ve witnessed that for many years.

Because there is drug testing, the stimulant of choice in the NBA now perhaps more than ever is alcohol. I’m told the fellas enjoy their vodka and Red Bull. And, of course, beer, which had been widely distributed in sports locker rooms for years before St. Louis Cardinals player Josh Hancock was killed in a car accident last year driving home from a game.

This is the trickiest issue of all for all of us because while alcohol is legal, it is frequently abused. Do you think more people are killed by drunk drivers or pot smoking drivers? How do you feel in the parking lot after your favorite major league baseball game knowing that guy sitting next to you with 12 cups stacked high is driving home? But with the games often sponsored by your favorite brew, what’s the choice?

I recall during the winning years of the Bulls franchise in the 1980’s and 1990’s seeing players like Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen dropping several six packs in their gym bags after the game. Drinking on the way home? Who knows? Maybe they had drivers. I don’t know.

I recall being in the team hotel and seeing the waiter taking empty liquor bottles on the tray from the room of Vin Baker. It was widely known around the NBA at the time Baker was drinking heavily. But it was legal. Should I as a reporter have written about it? It’s not like Baker was doing anything wrong but throwing away his career as he’d later go into rehab.

The team knew about it and teammates did as well. So did Baker’s representatives. But the stigma of going into rehab could cost him a contract, so no one ever said anything.

I know of several players now around the NBA who tell me teammates have serious drinking issues. They say the team and their agents know. But no one wants to do anything for fear of losing, A. The player as an asset; B. The player having a chance to get a better deal or new contract when his current one expires.

What’s my responsibility to write about it? What if the player drives and kills someone or himself? Could I have warned someone by reporting it? But what right do I have if he’s doing nothing illegal? And the people closest to him and for whom he works aren’t doing anything?

It seems to me these are the bigger issues facing the NBA—and all sports—today. Yes, there’s marijuana use in the NBA, and to anyone who saw Noah with his white suit on draft day in 2007 you figured there was a marijuana arrest in his future. But the league has bigger substance abuse issues, which don’t seem to be addressed by anyone.

[rAm]

Good article, thanks for the post.

[duncan228]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/basketball/nba/05/28/noah.arrest.ap/index.html

Noah gets probation after arrest

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) -- Chicago Bulls forward Joakim Noah accepted a deferred prosecution agreement Wednesday in his marijuana possession case, resulting in six months' probation and a $200 fine.

The former Florida star was charged with possession of less than 20 grams of marijuana and for having an open container of alcohol early Sunday in downtown Gainesville. As a first-time offender, he was eligible for the deferred prosecution agreement, the State Attorney's Office said.

The charges will be dropped in six months if Noah meets the terms of his probation.

Noah also must pay $206 in traffic fines for two citations he received Sunday on the University of Florida campus. Noah was ticketed for driving with a suspended license without knowledge and not wearing a seat belt.

Noah led the Gators to consecutive national championships before being selected ninth overall in last June's draft by the Bulls. He averaged 6.6 points and 5.6 rebounds in 74 games as a rookie.