DEERFIELD, Ill. — Of all the taunts he has heard, and there have been plenty, Joakim Noah has a favorite. It came when he was in college at the University of Florida, playing in Kentucky’s Rupp Arena. During a timeout late in the game, with his Gators handily beating the Wildcats, Noah looked into the crowd, which was a sea of blue, and screamed at the top of his lungs, “It’s quiet in here!”

An elderly woman looked back at him and yelled: “Noah! Have some class.” She tossed in an expletive, too, Noah said.

“She had to be in her 70s,” he said last week, lounging in a folding chair after a Bulls practice. He added, with a big smile: “It’s an unbelievable feeling to affect people like that.”

Six years into his professional career, the 6-foot-11-inch Noah has not lost his ability to irk opponents. One recent example was a late December game at Madison Square Garden, when he and Tyson Chandler were both ejected after the two came close to exchanging head butts during a Bulls win that turned chippy in the fourth quarter. The Knicks’ Carmelo Anthony and Coach Mike Woodson were also ejected.