Somewhere in the world Joakim Noah has to be smiling.
Three years after the Chicago Bulls forward/center put the entire city of Cleveland on blast with his comments during the postseason about, ”What's so good about Cleveland?", along comes Victor Oladipo.
The rookie for the Orlando Magic didn’t throw fire on the city as much as Noah did, but Oladipo does remain grateful that he was not selected by the Cavs back in June’s 2013 NBA Draft.
The report comes courtesy of the Orlando Magic (SB Nation) blog, Orlando Pinstriped Post.
Apparently at an exclusive event for season ticket-holders, Oladipo said, "I really didn't want to go to Cleveland."
It didn’t take like before those remarks made the rounds via Twitter and thanks to the Orlando Magic’s own official account which promptly deleted the quote. But by then, the damage had been already been done. In fact, Oladipo even took to his own Twitter account to apologize for the comment on the Cavs:
“Sorry to all the cavs fan if I offended them in anyway making the comment I made I didn't mean it the way you all took it.”
The shooting guard out of Indiana was selected 2nd overall by the Magic, after the Cavs took UNLV forward Anthony Bennett. And while the remark was harmless enough, words have a way of hitting home when it comes to NBA fans and any loyal fan base around the league for that matter.
Besides, wouldn’t the real news here be if Oladipo said “HE DID” want to go to Cleveland?
Now, that would be weird.
You’d probably think a comment like, “I really didn’t want to go to Cleveland”, wouldn’t spark a rivalry between the Magic and Cavs, but that won’t keep us from following along when the two teams meet during the regular season in Orlando (December 13th) and Cleveland (January 2nd).
Until then…roll the Joakim Noah clip for old times sake:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=AN0WqSeCKW8
