CLEVELAND — Famous Cleveland denigrator Joakim Noah couldn't resist throwing a little shade on one of the biggest sports nights in the city's history.
The Knicks center who once declared, "Cleveland really sucks" and "every time I look out my hotel window, it's depressing," was asked Tuesday if he saw any irony in being in the building for the Cavaliers' ring ceremony.
His answer drew a few chuckles.
"I don't think it's ironic," he said. "Congratulations to Cleveland. Even though it's not a vacation spot, you guys got your championship."
Cleveland and, to a larger degree, LeBron James, have tortured Noah and Derrick Rose throughout their careers, with King James knocking out the Bulls from four of their last six playoff appearances. During one of those series defeats — when James was still in his first go-around with the Cavs — Noah expressed his unfavorable feelings toward the Ohio city.
"I don't know about this place, man," he said in 2010. "I just stayed in my hotel room. Every time I look out my windows, it's pretty depressing here, man. It's bad. It's bad. No — no going out in Cleveland, man. It's all factories."
There was a new part of that Cleveland landscape Tuesday — an ice sculpture of James' head facing an erected sign reading, "The Land." It stood in between the basketball and baseball venues, which are separated by only a few hundred feet.
The Cleveland pride was overflowing Tuesday — with drunken revelry stretching for blocks in the afternoon — but the Knicks wanted no part of it.
Despite the ring ceremony occurring about 30 minutes before tipoff, the Knicks decided to spend that time in the locker room. Coach Jeff Hornacek, who two days earlier said he wanted the players to witness the ring celebration for motivation, indicated Tuesday the veterans weren't keen on watching a coronation.
"Sometimes it helps (to watch), sometimes they just want to ignore it," Hornacek said. "Maybe it's good for some of the young guys to see it. The old guys are like, 'I don't want to watch that.' It's whatever their choice. I think most of our guys prefer just to get ready and focused for the game."
Noah stuck around the longest for the Knicks, shooting free throws as the lights dimmed and the video tribute started on Cleveland's Humongotron. But he eventually left the court, and the Knicks missed a raucous celebration highlighted by the reception for a teary-eyed James.
"When this is all over and that banner goes up, there's really only one thing left to do: Repeat," Cavs owner Dan Gilbert told the crowd.
While the passing years haven't changed Noah's mind about the city of Cleveland, Rose has learned to respect the dominance of James and his six consecutive NBA Finals appearances. His stranglehold on the Eastern Conference has adversely affected the careers of Rose, Noah and Carmelo Anthony, because they can''t clear the James hurdle in their primes.
Together with Kristaps Porzingis, they're going to give it another run as big underdogs.
"LeBron's a great in this league, someone who accomplished a lot and, if anything, we can't go around him, we have to go through him," Rose said. "So it's great we have him the first game around and get a chance to see where we're at."
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