New Zealand Team Recruiting Joakim Noah

Joakim Noah has an opportunity to play for the New Zealand Breakers next season, tweets Marc Stein of The New York Times. The team is owned by Matt Walsh, Noah’s former teammate at Florida, who has been in charge of the recruiting effort.

The Breakers are pitching Noah on an arrangement similar to what Andrew Bogut had in Australia that enabled him to return to the NBA after his overseas commitment was complete (Twitter link). Bogut earned MVP honors with the Sydney Kings, then joined the Warriors for 11 regular season games and the playoffs.

However, Stein notes that Noah has received interest from a few NBA teams after a surprisingly strong performance once he joined the Grizzlies in December (Twitter link).

Noah averaged 7.1 points and 5.7 rebounds in 41 games for Memphis, helping to erase memories of two nightmarish seasons with the Knicks. At age 34, he is being very “selective” about where he winds up next, Stein adds.

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