ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL

Joakim Noah dunks one
in against the GS Warriors
in file photo.

Joakim Noah can now heave a sigh of relief. The hardworking frontliner has finally agreed to a five-year, $60-M contract extension with the Chicago Bulls. The 25-year old French national says he is happy with the deal and is excited by the challenge to prove that he is worth all the money, according to ESPN.com. The 6-11 Noah was the 9th pick over-all by the Bulls in the 2007 draft. He has career norms of 7.9 ppg and 7.9 rpg in 218 games for the Windy City outfit.

“I'm pretty happy. It's very exciting. I'm very happy that I'm going to be able to be here for a while. I feel like the Bulls definitely did me right. But I promise I'm going to give 150 percent every time I'm out there, and I understand with a lot of money comes a lot of responsibility. I'm excited for the challenge.

“It's always very weird when negotiations are going on. But I understand that there's a CBA going on next year, the collective bargaining agreement, so not a lot of players in my class got contract extensions, and I feel like [the Bulls] definitely did it because they like me and I'm pretty happy about it.”