Meet the New York dentist who introduced Phil Jackson and Joakim Noah
In an interview with the Chicago Tribune’s K.C. Johnson, Joakim Noah said that the New York Knicks were always his first priority in free agency.
“My mind was already set on where I wanted to play,” Noah said, citing the presence of former Chicago Bulls teammate Derrick Rose, Knicks president Phil Jackson and the fact that New York is his hometown. Part of the reason he was so sure about this might be the fact that he spent time with Jackson in Montana five years ago, thanks to a Greenwich Village dentist who put them in touch.
Noah mentioned the dentist when he was first introduced as a Knick in July. The New York Daily News’ Stefan Bondy found him: his name is Daniel Rudolph, and he is 71 years old. Back in 1971, when Jackson played for the Knicks, he also occasionally played pickup with Rudolph and his friends in Greenwich Village. This Monday night run is still going, and it might be the longest-running pickup game in New York.
From the New York Daily News:
Jackson and Rudolph developed a relationship from these encounters, beyond the patient-dentist dynamic that was also occurring in Rudolph’s office. It has persevered and flourished through the years. The two have sat together at Knicks games, and Rudolph traveled to Montana to attend the wedding of Jackson’s daughter.
“When Phil went to California, he got another dentist there,” Rudolph says. “But when he broke a tooth here, I fixed his tooth here.”
Many years after he first inspected Jackson’s teeth, Rudolph got another NBA client — the New York-bred Noah — who also had two buddies participating in the aforementioned pickup game.
When Noah expressed a desire to meet Jackson out of fascination, the 7-footer sought out the dentist through his agent.
“I made the introduction,” Rudolph says.
Rudolph called Noah and Jackson “kindred spirits,” and said that he thought Noah wanted to “expand his universe” when he went to Montana. When the center told the story last month, he said he knocked on the door, Jackson asked him why he was there and he said, “I don’t know.” Then they spent a couple of days together. Totally normal.
It’s not clear if that initial meeting directly led to Noah and Jackson working together in New York. At the time, Jackson was out of the league and Noah was trying to win a championship in Chicago. And if the Knicks hadn’t traded Robin Lopez away right before Noah hit free agency, then a partnership would not have made sense. I’d love to believe, though, that the two of them have been hoping to team up all along, all because of this dentist.
