Joakim Noah Is Really Happy LeBron James & The Cavs Lost

Joakim Noah still isn’t a very big fan of Cleveland.

Back in 2010, during LeBron James’ first stint with the Cavaliers, a young Joakim and the underdog Bulls fought like hell but were no match for the league’s best player. Noah and an inexperienced kid named Derrick Rose only managed one win against Cleveland before being ousted in the first round.

Earlier that season, Noah turned some heads with a few harsh words about the city of Cleveland. Later, during their playoff visit, Noah was asked if he regretted any of the comments he made about the Midwestern city. He doubled down.

After LeBron ditched his hometown team to join forces with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami, he met the Bulls in the playoffs again. This time in the Eastern Conference Finals, as the young Bulls blossomed under new coach Tom Thibodeau and the meteoric rise of an MVP Rose. When LeBron and the Heat dispatched the Bulls in 5 games, Noah gave them their due credit. He also couldn’t resist calling them “Hollywood as hell.” No denying that, Jo.

Noah left the Bulls in free agency last summer, and the old Rose-Noah-Thibs teams feel like ages ago. The scrappy center had a tough year with the Knicks, and took plenty of criticism from New York fans for failing to play to the level of his new $72 million contract. He was also suspended 20 games for violating the league’s anti-drug policy after using supplements to aid his recovery from injury. Calling Noah’s 2016-17 season challenging would be a gross understatement.

But on Monday night, he probably fell asleep with a smile. LeBron “Hollywood as hell” James and his Cleveland team were vanquished by the Warriors in Game 5 of the NBA Finals.

When Noah saw a post trolling the Cavaliers on Instagram, he couldn’t help but click that heart-shaped “like” button.

SB Nation’s Ricky O’Donnell, a recent guest on The 312 podcast, noticed Noah’s Instagram handle “stickity13” had recently liked the post and tweeted a screenshot for the world to see.