After hitting a jumper Bulls’ forward Joakim Noah would celebrate by imitating shooting a six-shooter gun with his fingers, and then holster it on his side.
In the wake of the recent Newtown tragedy, as well as other gun-related violence in our country, Noah has decided to cut the celebration.
He tells ESPN that you can no longer joke like that:
“You can’t joke around with things like that. Too many people are dying because of guns. We have a problem here with guns, so (I’m) just trying to be a little bit compassionate about what’s going on. You can’t joke around — it’s not a laughing matter anymore.”
“I think it’s what happened in Connecticut that was really shocking to a lot of people but things like that have been going on,” he said. “We have a serious problem with that in Chicago. It’s crazy, man. You just hear about … the summer and the movie theatre (in Aurora, Colo.); it’s happening all the time. This is just unheard of. Every story is just horrific. It’s just not a joke. This gun thing in this country is no joke.”
Gun violence has always been a problem in this country, and unfortunately it takes tremendous tragedies to bring attention to the growing problem.
I commend Noah for making the conscious decision to stop this celebration, and hope that we find a solution to this problem that affects all of us.
