Joakim Noah reflects on time with Knicks saying he was ‘too lit to play in New York’

Former All-Star big man Joakim Noah has gotten another chance to reboot his NBA career. It comes after inking a deal to play the rest of this season for the Memphis Grizzlies.

This has also provided him a chance to reflect on his time with the New York Knicks. That stint quickly went south and led to his departure with the Knicks. He used the league’s stretch provision on Noah’s deal that still had two years and $37.8 million remaining. During a recent interview on The Ringer’s “The Chris Vernon Show,” Noah pinpointed his partying off the court as being a major reason for his struggles, via Ian Begley of ESPN.

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“Not just the pressure. I remember after the first game, I probably had, like, 60 people in my house. I’m too lit, I’m too lit to play in New York City,” Noah said, laughing with the interviewer. “I’m too lit to play in New York City. Memphis is perfect for me.”

It was a situation in New York that Noah had not handled properly and allowed for his off-the-court decisions to heavily impact his play on the court. On top of that, his playing style didn’t exactly mess on the court as he had also struggled to find his role on the team that combined with his issues with then-head coach Jeff Hornacek made matters worse.

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Noah now has an opportunity in front of him to restart his career with the Grizzlies, where he could re-establish himself as one of the better big men in the league. In his first five games with Memphis, he is averaging 6.2 points and 3.8 rebounds in 16.0 minutes per game.

What this may do more than anything else is allow Noah to move on from that previous situation in New York and focus entirely on this next venture of his NBA career.