HOUSTON’S ROCKETS the culture of the James Harden era, which unites two owners and now four head coaches, could best be summed up in the three words of a former staff member:
“Whatever James wants.”
Unless they were at the front of a consecutive set, it was essentially a safe thing for the Rockets to spend the night (or even an extra day) after games in Los Angeles, Phoenix and other cities by road. Harden.
If the Rockets had two or three days between games, it would be a good bet for Harden to ask for a day off and rent a private jet to party in Las Vegas or another city. He always receives an excused absence from the first practice after the All Star break for the same reason.
“Only James is James,” say those who are currently part of the franchise. But those circumstances are drastically different from those of any previous point in the All-Star’s eight-year tenure in Houston.
Harden has pushed the Rockets to improve each low season, saying he would want to be changed if they couldn’t fight, sources said. And he had the last opinion on things beyond travel and internship schedules as well. It could fire shots at staff movements, both on the roster and in the coaching staff, a power that flexed to push for the dismissal of head coach Kevin McHale and the departures of teammates Dwight Howard and Chris Paul, sources said.
And the Rockets thought it was good business to do what Harden wanted to keep a historically elite player happy. But when Harden tried to rush to the Rockets to change him in recent weeks despite the lack of an offer they considered fair value, it wasn’t the annual ultimatum for improvement. It was something else.
Leaving the Rockets twisted in the wind as the field opened with little communication, Harden made his absence the focus of rookie head coach Stephen Silas’ first days of practice. And, blowing up the NBA’s COVID-19 protocols, partying without masks during the pandemic, and bragging about it on Instagram, Harden revealed what could happen if not understood.
“Yeah, he’s going to act,” a former Rockets member said.
“I had never heard ‘no.'”
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MULTIPLE OFFICIAL ROCKETS recognizing that the entire organization has been “complicit” in the culture that has been created over the past eight years.
“We knew who was the head of the organization,” a former Rockets assistant coach said. “That’s just part of what the deal was like when you went to Houston. Every player, coach, GM, owner, knows that.
“I don’t blame James. I blame the organization. It’s not his fault. He did what they allowed him to do.”
Still, there is no consensus among current and former Rockets officials and officials that enabling Harden to these extremes was the wrong path. The Rockets tended to be irrelevant in the NBA before Harden’s arrival in Houston, losing the playoffs each of the previous three seasons.
Former Rockets general manager Daryl Morey took a calculated risk by projecting that the reigning Sixth Man of the Year would become a bona fide superstar when he sent Kevin Martin, then new rookie lottery coach and a NBA national team pack in Oklahoma City Thunder for Harden. The Rockets haven’t lost the playoffs since, the only franchise that can make that claim.
“If they have several days off, everyone knows: James will fly somewhere else and party. But he’ll come back and have a 50-point triple-double, so he’ll be fine.”
Member of the 2019-20 Houston Technical Corps
Houston has not achieved its ultimate goal during his career with Harden, advancing to the Western Conference Finals twice, but never surpassing that point. But Harden’s brilliance, the 2017-18 MVP and one of the top three ranked in the poll four times over the past six years, gave Houston a realistic hope of defending that only a handful of teams have each season.
He is also one of the sport’s most enduring stars, routinely ranking among league leaders in a matter of minutes and often playing with injuries such as ankle sprains and shoulder bruises that could rest other players. All of these things made the Rockets able to look the other way when it came to Harden’s tough lifestyle.
“If they have several days off, everyone knows: James will fly somewhere else and party,” a coaching staff member said last season. “But he’ll come back and have a 50-point triple-double, so he’ll be fine.”
But the lack of discipline and attention to detail has not been right with Paul and Russell Westbrook, which has led to the breakup between Harden and these two stars.
The highlight of the franchise’s Harden era came during Paul’s first season in Houston, when the Rockets scored 65 league wins during the regular season and won a 3-2 lead over Golden State. Warriors in the Western Conference Finals. But the Rockets lost the last two games of this series with Paul offside – “a hamstring” is a phrase that will haunt Houston fans forever – and the chemistry between the ball’s dominant teammates exploded. the following season.
One of Paul’s biggest calves, according to sources, was that Harden basically chose not to participate in the Rockets ’offense when the ball wasn’t in his hands, sometimes barely stepping halfway across the field while s ‘waited when Paul had the ball. Harden quickly grew tired of Paul’s barks about his concerns, which included pressure coach Mike D’Antoni to implement more structure and movement in an offensive system that revolved around Harden’s isolations, sources said.
Rocket management believed these problems could be solved and wanted to resume it with the Harden-Paul duo last season. These plans changed as soon as Westbrook became available.
Harden insisted the Rockets get the deal, saying he would demand a trade if they could not find a way to bring his childhood friend and former OKC teammate to Houston, sources said. The Rockets paid a price that at the time was considered high: Paul in 2024 and 2026 in the first round, and swap fees in 2021 and 2025.
Sources said Westbrook frequently expressed his discomfort during the season at not being able to “play my game,” he said. There were questions about the Harden-Westbrook lace when they were pushing to play together again, including D’Antoni privately expressing his concerns, sources said.
These concerns were silenced, internally and externally, when Westbrook thrived after the Rockets ’change to small ball opened the ground. He averaged 32.2 points, 8.2 rebounds and 7.0 assists per game while shooting 53.1% from the ground for a period of two months before the coronavirus pandemic stopped the season.
HOUSTON’S CASUAL CULTURE dismayed Westbrook. In Oklahoma City, he enjoyed the same kind of superstar privileges Harden has had in Houston, and the Thunder operated under the discipline of a military unit under Westbrook control. The Rockets were in stark contrast, especially last season with D’Antoni, who was never known as a disciplinarian and was a lame anchor in the final year of his contract after the infamous negotiations that infamous two times during the summer.
Westbrook did not tolerate delay. With the Rockets, Harden and others treated the scheduled departure times as mere suggestions.
“Nothing ever starts on time,” a former Rockets member said. “The plane is always late. The bus never arrives on time. … It’s just an organized AAU team.”
On one occasion, in the Florida bubble, Harden waited to do the daily tests of COVID-19 until just before the Rockets movie session began. When he didn’t arrive on time, Westbrook barked, “Start the movie! Start without him!” D’Antoni explained that they would only have to start again when Harden arrived, which didn’t do much to calm Westbrook down.
It’s unclear if Westbrook or Harden wanted to go out first, but they no longer wanted to play together, a season after the Rockets mortgaged their future project to make it a reality.
Morey, the man who negotiated this deal with the approval of owner Tilman Fertitta, made his departure before either star asked to be changed. Rafael Stone, who was promoted to general manager after Morey’s resignation and became president of the Philadelphia 76ers ’basketball operations, was left to deal with the messy consequences.
As reported by a high-ranking Rockets source on ESPN in November, the franchise was “willing to feel uncomfortable” entering the season with disgruntled superstars on the roster. The Rockets ended up negotiating Westbrook just before the camp opened, sending him to the Washington Wizards for John Wall (just after a two-year layoff due to injury) and a future protected first-round pick, an admission that the agreement of the previous low season to acquire Westbrook was a disastrous decision.
But Houston has deep heels in relation to Harden, refusing at the moment to consider an offer unless it includes a young cornerstone of the franchise and a package of first-round picks and / or promising players in rookie deals. According to sources, Harden, who had focused singularly on trying to force his way into Brooklyn networks, has indicated to the Rockets that he would agree to a trade with the 76ers or other select candidates.
After the Rockets let it be known that they would not be swayed by the unhappiness, Harden delayed his arrival at camp, instead of choosing to stay with rapper Lil Baby, giving his friend a Prada bag filled with honey loaves. , a $ 100,000 cash brick (also known as “Honey Bun”) and a Richard Mille watch worth the six figures for Lil Baby’s birthday, while leaving Silas hanging.
Harden reported to the Rockets on Dec. 8, a week after his teammates tested negative for the coronavirus for six consecutive days with an NBA mandate and finally practiced with the team on Monday. According to the coach, he had a “good conversation” about basketball strategy with Silas, who maintained minimal communication with his tip up to that point. But Harden has yet to speak to the media since his late arrival on training camp, a violation of NBA rules.
The Rockets expect Harden, who played 21 minutes in Tuesday’s preseason win over the San Antonio Spurs, to be professional as he patiently explores the commercial market, seeking a deal that doesn’t condemn the franchise to a lengthy and painful rebuild.
“You can’t get mad at your child if you let him eat sweets every night and suddenly one night you don’t and they throw a tantrum,” said a former Houston assistant coach. “You are the one who has let them eat sweets every night.
“The Rockets handed over the organization to James and now they have to live with the consequences.”