Joakim Noah on Mike Dunleavy: ‘He’s finally giving Duke some credibility’

In ESPN’s Fab Five documentary, Jalen Rose discussed how he felt about Duke while playing at Michigan.

Rose:

I hated Duke, and I hated everything I felt Duke stood for. Schools like Duke didn’t recruit players like me. I felt like they only recruited black players that were Uncle Toms.

To many, that’s still the perception of Duke, regardless of the race of its players.

Elite. Soft. Spoiled. Prissy. Coddled.

If Mike Dunleavy is trying to singlehandedly change that image, he’s having a pretty good few weeks.

He tangled with DeMarcus Cousins. Taj Gibson talked about him riding the New York City subway alone late at night while already in the NBA. And last night, he took an elbow to the face and returned after getting 10 stitches, playing excellently.

https://twitter.com/Rachel__Nichols/statuses/444290033256648704

Personally, I find the increasingly common discussion about whether Joakim Noah deserves third-place MVP votes a bit off. Don’t get me wrong. I care about the minutia of runner-up award voting far more than anyone should (just wait until I dig into that later in the season), and Noah is having an excellent year. But, for me, it’s a four-man race between Stephen Curry, Blake Griffin, Kevin Love and Chris Paul – though others like Noah, Carmelo Anthony, Anthony Davis and James Harden still have time to work their way into the discussion.

But that was an MVP quote by Noah if there ever was one.