Danny Granger Calls Joakim Noah A Dirty Player

Last night, Derrick Rose and the Chicago Bulls advanced to the second round after destroying the Indiana Pacers (116-89) in Game 5 to take the series 4-1.
Danny Granger, forward of the Pacers, did not take the loss too well. Danny had a few choice of words for Bulls center Joakim Noah about his physical play last night:

“He pulled a cowardly move,” Granger said. “He cheap-shotted a couple of my teammates, and one gets thrown out …
“The refs never catch what he did … it’s cowardly. And I’m going to say something about it. I wanted to say something about it all the way to the game was over. I just don’t think the game should be played that way. You can play hard and fight and battle, but when you start cheap-shotting people it gets out of hand.”

It’s a little sweet of Granger to even complain about the physicality of one player in last night’s game knowing damn well the Pacers team has been throwing their weight around all series long.
Noah heard about Granger’s outcry and said:

“I played dirty? Ok. I’m just trying to win basketball games, man,” Noah said. “It’s the name of the game.
“I’m just out there trying to do what I gotta do. Like I said, I give a lot of credit to their team. The play hard as hell. They were competitive. I don’t have anything bad to say about them. Everybody saw what happened out there. Now you want to call me a dirty player? I don’t think I’ve ever been a dirty player. It is what it is. It’s ok.” Source

Noah was just listening to an old Bulls Hall of Famer. That physical play is exactly what Bulls legend Scottie Pippen wanted from the Bulls and Noah delivered.