James Harden and Daryl Morey are going at it over his trade request off of the Philadelphia 76ers. With the Sixers not budging, Harden decided to publicly attack his once close friend in Morey, which likely ended any shot he had of suiting up for Philly once again. Many folks have opinions on the Harden-Morey beef, including Harden's former Houston Rockets coach Kevin McHale.
Harden and McHale teamed up in Houston for what ended up amounting to four seasons of work, and that just so happened to coincide with Harden's rise from a solid bench scorer into one of the best players in the game. McHale knows how these situations work, and he doesn't believe that Morey is as responsible for lying to Harden as the star guard believes he is.
“I think Daryl’s really hooked up with James, but I think ownership looked at it. Let’s face it, if the owner looks at you and says, ‘We’re signing that dude,’ you’re signing that dude. Story’s over. And if the owner looks at you and says, ‘We’re not signing that dude,’ you’re not signing him. James wanted a big extension from Philly, and Philly wouldn’t give it to him, and that’s not a Daryl decision. Daryl’s got a part of that, of course, but that’s an owner decision. So (Harden) was really mad, saying Daryl lied to him, but, you know, maybe they saw Game 7 against the Celtics (9 points on 3-for-11 shooting in a 24-point loss) and said, ‘I’m not interested in that.’” – Kevin McHale, Heavy.com
McHale is right in pointing out that there are a lot of moving pieces when it comes to trade requests, so Harden's decision to point the blame solely at Morey is probably the wrong move. However, James Harden doesn't really seem to care, and basketball fans everywhere will anxiously be keeping an eye on his status to see what happens next in the Sixers drama-filled offseason.
Follow Us
Subscribe