National Basketball Association

New York Knicks: Joakim Noah Aiming To Dethrone LeBron James

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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New York Knicks big man Joakim Noah knows what it will take to win an NBA championship. He’s preparing to dethrone LeBron James.

Whether realistic or otherwise, the only goal for an experienced NBA team is to win a championship. Unfortunately for the New York Knicks, ending a soon-to-be 44-year title drought will require an additional measure of history being achieved.

If the Knicks are to win a championship, they’ll have to go through LeBron James—a task that Joakim Noah is preparing to achieve.

Phil Jackson signed Noah to a four-year contract worth $72 million during the summer of 2016. The long-term investment was a clear display of his vision for Noah to help the Knicks win in the short-term and build an identity for the future.

According to Ian Begley of ESPN New York, Noah and the Knicks aren’t shying away from the foregone conclusion that reaching the NBA Finals would require going through James.

“It’s definitely the goal. It’s definitely not an easy task,” Noah said when asked about beating the Cavs. “But that’s got to be the mindset. We all know what it is. Right now, it goes through him. It goes through that guy. For us to get where we want to get to, we’ve got to beat that guy.”

That’s the harsh reality in the Eastern Conference.

A James-led team has made the NBA Finals in six consecutive seasons. He’s won three NBA championships and thoroughly dominated the competition in the Eastern Conference.

A James-led team hasn’t fallen shy of the NBA Finals since 2010, which is reason enough to believe New York is faced with an almost impossible task.

James has star-caliber support in the form of NBA Finals hero Kyrie Irving and two-time All-NBA Second Team honoree Kevin Love. Cleveland also has the likes of Tristan Thompson, Mike Dunleavy, Iman Shumpert, and Channing Frye under contract.

True as that all may be, this all begins and ends with James.

Noah has faced James in the playoffs on multiple occasions, but has yet to emerge victorious. Noah’s Bulls lost 4-1 to the Cavaliers in 2010, 4-1 to the Heat in 2011, 4-1 to the Heat again in 2013, and 4-2 to Cleveland in 2015.

The question is: do the Knicks actually have enough firepower to dethrone King James in 2017?

Considering the New York Knicks haven’t won the NBA championship since 1973, the only choice is to aim for an end to the drought.