Cowherd was talking about an article he read today. He said Westbrook couldn't deal with Harden. Westbrook is punctual and it was driving him nuts how much everything revolved around Harden. Practices started when Harden wanted them to, they ended when Harden said they were over. Flights were frequently delayed while they waited for Harden. Everyone on the team would be waiting to start a film session at the agreed upon time but they usually had to wait for Harden to arrive at some later time before the session got started. So this might make people think twice about Harden's ability to play with other stars, never mind the fact that he's a basically a numbers chasing ball hog- albeit a pretty great one.
tim mcmahon from espn says cp3 also had issues with harden
After the 2019 playoffs, the Houston Rockets were confident they could resolve the issues between James Harden and Chris Paul. Paul had lobbied Mike D'Antoni to implement more structure and movement in Houston's system instead of revolving around Harden isolations. One of Paul's biggest concerns was Harden essentially not participating in the offense when the ball wasn't in his hands.
The plan to have Paul remain with the Rockets changed as soon as Russell Westbrook became available by the Oklahoma City Thunder. Harden told the Rockets he would demand a trade if they didn't find a way to acquire Westbrook for Paul. Houston ultimately decided to execute the trade in which they gave up their first round picks in 2024 and 2026 along with swap rights in 2021 and 2025.
Westbrook initially struggled and expressed his displeasure with not being able to "play my game."
Before the trade, D'Antoni privately expressed his concerns about the Harden-Westbrook fit. But Westbrook eventually flourished when the Rockets went extra small.
Topic: Harden doesn't speak to media post-game, violating NBA media rules (Read 4367 times)