NEW YORK — Joakim Noah isn’t much of a Heat fan. So watching LeBron James and Co. celebrate a second straight title stung a little.

“At first I said I didn’t care, but I was lying to myself,” Noah told For The Win at The Steve Nash Foundation Showdown in New York City Wednesday night. “I was driving in my car and I just didn’t feel good about it at all after they won.

“Well you know what? It’s going to be extra motivation to work extra hard in the offseason and I feel like we’ll be the team that beats them next year.”

The disdain the Miami Heat and Chicago Bulls have for each other is no secret. From the the flurry of technical fouls to all the cheap shots in the playoffs, the Eastern Conference powers’ rivalry is one of the sexiest in the NBA.

And Noah believes it’s only a matter of time before the Bulls win a championship.

“I think we’re pretty close,” he said. “We got a lot of work to do. We don’t like them, they don’t like us, but at the end of the day, you gotta give credit where credit is due. They’re a very good team, but we feel like if we’re healthy, we’ll have our shot.”