Knicks team president Phil Jackson and recently-acquired center Joakim Noah are both men of the world, known almost as much for their varied interests outside of basketball as they are for their work on the court. If asked to guess the person who first introduced these two, a whole host of ideas come to mind: a Hopi medicine man, T. Bone Burnett, a Sherpa, super chef Bobby Flay, Burmese politician Aung San Suu Kyi. Perhaps the last person to come to mind would be Noah’s dentist.
But it was indeed the 71-year-old Daniel Rudolph, D.D.S., who provided the connection, which led to Noah randomly show up at Phil’s Montana home a few years back.