In the first year of a five-year $60 million deal, Joakim Noah admitted to the Tribune that the new deal contributed to his slow start to begin this season.
"Yeah, no question, I thought about that," Noah told the Trib. "Sometimes you feel like because you're given so much money you're expected to do things. That's not the right mentality to have as a player.
"I have to play my game. I have to have fun out there. If I don't, I'm not the same player."
Noah, who always places a lot of pressure on himself to perform at a high level, indicated that he had placed even more pressure on himself and wasn’t playing loose but “playing tight.”
Only notching one double-double in his first 12 games and doing so seven of his last 10 games, it’s clear that he is back to him old self.
The fact that his name has been whispered in Dwight Howard rumors had to also play a part but he wouldn’t specify otherwise.
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