Joakim Noah, Basketball Player, b. 1985

Joakim Noah (right), with a high-school friend.Photo: Courtesy of Joakim Noah

I was born in New York, but I moved to France until I was 13 years old. I remember I used to go play at P.S. 149 in Corona, Queens, every Saturday, with my basketball coach Tyrone Green. He used to get food from Kennedy Fried Chicken—not Kentucky Fried Chicken, Kennedy Fried Chicken, the hood Kentucky Fried Chicken. I used to get a couple of pieces of chicken and a slice of pizza and eat it on the train, and that’s when Mr. Green told me, “You fit in perfect, man, you’re a real New Yorker now, you’re eating your chicken on the train.”

Joakim Noah, Basketball Player, b. 1985