Pacers' Granger: Bulls' Noah a 'dirty player'

Chicago Bulls center Joakim Noah is public enemy No. 1 in the Indiana Pacers' locker room.

Noah's sharp elbows left the Pacers riled long after they were eliminated from the NBA playoffs Tuesday. Forward Danny Granger was among the most annoyed.

“Joakim Noah, he’s a dirty player,” Granger said, according to the Daily Herald of Arlington Heights, Ill. “Honestly. He elbowed two of my power forwards. One (Josh McRoberts) got kicked out. The other (Tyler Hansbrough) got a tech and nothing’s called on (Noah).”

In fact, Noah was assessed a technical foul along with Hansbrough.

Granger tried to confront Noah after the game but was turned away by Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau.

“I don’t think there’s a place in the game for it," Granger said of Noah's apparent chippiness. “You can make hard fouls and everything, but when you start elbowing people in the face, that’s when fights start breaking out.”
Joakim Noah keeps Jeff Foster (center) and Josh McRoberts at bay after snaring the ball. Noah and McRoberts would tangle later in Game 5. (AP Photo)

McRoberts was tossed for shoving Noah late in the third quarter, after the two got tangled under the basket.

“He came down and swung an elbow and hit me right in the throat,” McRoberts said, according to the Daily Herald. “I was just trying to shove back to defend myself. I didn’t know you could get thrown out for a push, which is what I thought I did.”

Late in the fourth quarter, Noah and Hansbrough locked arms while jostling for a rebound. Both were assessed technical fouls. Hansbrough claimed Noah started it with an elbow.

For his part, Noah tried to take the high road.

“I play dirty?” Noah said. “OK. I’m just trying to win basketball games, man. It’s the name of the game.”

“You guys all know what happened. I’m just out there just trying to do what I gotta do. Like I said, I give a lot of credit to their team. They played hard as (heck). They were very competitive. I got nothing bad to say about none of those guys.”

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