Joakim Noah has been suspended for 20 games by the NBA for violating the league’s drug policy, the league announced on Saturday. The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski first reported the suspension.
Joakim Noah tests positive for PEDs, suspended 20 games
Noah will split his suspension between the end of this season and the start of the next one.
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Noah is in the first season of a four year, $72 million contract with the New York Knicks. He will the first 10 games of the suspension this season and the final 10 games at the start of the 2017-18 season.
The NBA says that Noah tested positive for Selective Androgen Receptor Modulator LGD-4033, also known as ligandrol, a banned over-the-counter supplement. Per Wojnarowski, a probe by the players’ union discovered Noah hadn’t “knowingly or willingly” violated the league’s drug policies.
Ligandrol is a testosterone booster that is not classified as a steroid but is banned as a performance-enhancing drug by multiple sports.
The suspension won’t hurt the Knicks this season, given they are eight games out and everything but mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. This piles onto what has been a terribly disappointing year for New York, after they began the season with postseason expectations. Instead, they’ve struggled to a 27-45 record.
Noah underwent arthroscopic knee surgery on Feb. 27, but he is apparently eligible to start serving his suspension now because he recently began running and conditioning, per Wojnarowski. He should be eligible for a November return.
He’ll lose roughly $2.7 million in salary from the suspension.
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