Joakim Noah Faces His Past in France With Yannick & Tony Parker
His father is hugely popular in France. It’s fading a bit these last years but Yannick Noah use to be elected “favorite french person” many times. Won the last grand slam by a french, was the captain of an awesome Davis Cup win against USA and became a cool singer and chill celebrity.
As a french it was so funny when the tv broadcast interviewed Yannick Noah during a Bulls game back then and just put the subtitle “Joakim father”. Like 100% of french people knew Yannick but only basket lovers knew Joakim.
For the record Joakim Noah grandfather was a professionnal footballer thah won the Coupe de France. Quite a DNA of sports skills there.
Joakim is very close to D.Rose and i remember Rose being anxious of his kids growing up with a lot of money, he asked a lot of advice to Joakim that definitely grew up in a very rich family. Yannick is father won millions with tennis and music and his mother was Cecilia Rodhe a succesful swedish model then artist.
It’s crazy how tall Joakim his compared to his father. IIRC Yannick married to a model, so I suppose she’s tall and it comes from this side, but that’s just guesswork.
Yannick Noah was 1m93 / 6’4 and damn athletic during his tennis peak. Cecilia Rhode was 1m76 / 5’9. Not huge but still way taller than average european girl.
Joakim Noah is way taller than his parents, he took the best of Cameroon + Swedish DNA i guess.
I think his grandfather was like 5’9 or something. Joakim is much bigger than his dad, but his dad is much bigger than his own father.
Safe to say joakims kid is going to be 8’ and rule the nba /s
That and HGH
For those not aware, Yannick Noah (Joakim’s father) was a professional tennis player (won Roland Garros, the French Open, back in the 80’s, and is the last Frenchman to win it).
He then became a successful French pop singer.
So yeah, Joakim’s father is way way more famous among all generations in France, than Joakim, who plays a sport that is still rather niche relative to Football, Rugby, Tennis, etc in France, and with very little primetime TV exposure because of time zones.
Like, almost every French person knows who Yannick Noah is.Not many are even aware he has a son who plays Basketball, and wouldn’t recognise Joakim in the streets.
I completely forgot he is Yannick’s son, or indeed , Yannick Noah. But yeah! The rasta guy playing tennis, I remember now!
Joakim Noah was supposed to come meet our middle school class from France after we went to a bulls game when we were abroad in the US. They were up by 20 and lost, we waited half an hour but he didn’t come
That tracks. Joakim was a guy that was way more into his feelings than other guys. Not necessarily a bad thing, either, since that was a big part of what made him great on the court/locker room too. But yea not great for post game charity work
One of the best basketball documentary style video series I’ve seen, his one in Puerto Rico was absolutely fantastic too. Seems like a super cool guy, would have loved to have him play for the team I root for based on how hard he played
That was great. Thanks for sharing ✊🏽
You can tell his dad really did care about how good of a player his son was simply because of how it affected his son personally and how much it meant to him
genuinely a captivating video. I had no idea about Noah’s backstory
Really cool video. It’s awesome seeing Paris, seeing how cool Joakim’s dad is, how awesome Tony Parker and his freaking mansion are. But also how much some people in France struggle with identity - just like people in the US.
I went to Paris once and really didn’t enjoy it at all. I wish I could go with someone local that could just plan a couple of days for me.