Joakim Noah Injury Could Be Fracture, Likely Out for Series

It looks like Joakim Noah will be out for the rest of the series. He injured his ankle while taking the ball up the court and stepping on Andre Iguodala's foot. If you want to see it, here's the ugliness. We've already heard he was on crutches after the game and now it seems like it could be a fracture too. With Derrick Rose already out, the Sixers may as well be playing the Raptors. This sucks:

Hobbling badly, he purposely fouled Evan Turner at the 6:46 mark so he could exit straight to the locker room.

But Noah inexplicably returned early in the fourth, even though he barely could run.

"He wanted to give it a shot," Thibodeau said. "You could see he couldn't move. First, he has to be cleared by (athletic trainer Fred Tedeschi). He felt like he could go. Once we saw he was having a hard time moving, that was it."

It looks like Game Four is out of the question for Noah, and I'd bet they play it safe and keep him out for the rest of the series. The fact is, for the second game this series, Tom Thibodeau made a terrible coaching decision based on injury and it cost him. As Kelly Dwyer says, Tom just had to say "no".

Playing Derrick Rose while the team was up 12 with 90 seconds left in the contest during last week's Game 1 was passable, but this marks the second time in two postseasons that Thibodeau has re-entered a player that clearly should not have been on the court following an injury — as was the case for Omer Asik's broken femur last spring. I've defended Thibodeau quite a bit in these pages, and a loss in this series would not be the fault of a Bulls coaching staff working with a Rose-less team, but he needed to say "no."

And it looks like the Bulls are pretty much screwed for the series. Omer Asik, Carlos Boozer, and Taj Gibson have all been less than terrific so far -- Noah's really been driving them even when D-Rose wasn't hurt. Now they might be done. A Sixers win would be fun and nice, but at this cost, it's sad to see.

Which brings me to the cheering. If you're reading this, you're likely a person. It's also probable that you're not completely devoid of human emotion. Thus, clapping and cheering for pain and suffering is akin to the Romans clamoring for death for the gladiators. This isn't how humans act. Stop cheering for injuries. I don't care if you're from Philadelphia or New York or Boston or Cleveland or wherever. If you cheer for injuries -- especially one that looked as painful as that -- you are a giant asshole who takes A GAME way too seriously. I don't like Joakim Noah. I don't like his face and I don't like his fingagunz. But that doesn't give me (or anyone) an excuse to cheer wildly when he goes down with a serious injury. If you do, then I hope you tear your ACL today playing basketball or practicing law or studying for a test and your opponents cheer right in your face. Don't be terrible people, please.