McHale coached the Houston Rockets from 2011-15, the last two of those years coming with Harden on the team. He claims that Harden never forgave him for benching him in the fourth quarter of Game 6 in the Rockets’ 2015 series against the Los Angeles Clippers, when Houston erased a 19-point deficit in the last 15 minutes with Harden on the sidelines.
“The next year he came to camp, he was fat and didn’t feel like playing, and I got fired eleven games into the season,” McHale told Heavy Sports. “He had a plan.”
Coming off a Conference Finals appearance the previous year, the 2015-16 Rockets went 41-41 and finished eighth with essentially the same team. Harden’s inconsistent effort is why McHale isn’t surprised Philadelphia has held off on a long-term contract this off-season. But unlike Harden. he doesn’t blame team president Daryl Morey for the decision.
“My whole take on the thing 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.”
McHale called the contract an “owner decision,” and speculated that Harden’s poor performance in Game 7 of the series with the Boston Celtics – Harden scored just nine points – scared off 76ers ownership. Harden also committed a game-changing flagrant foul on Jaylen Brown.
The Hall of Fame player mostly had positive things to say about his old boss Morey, though McHale called him “stubborn” and admitted their philosophies didn’t totally align. “I liked working with Daryl,” he said, “Though sometimes I thought there was too much … just analytics.”
But whatever happens with Harden’s trade request, McHale mainly feels bad for Joel Embiid, and doesn’t think much of Philadelphia’s playoff chances.
“This guy’s coming off an MVP season, but when you’re team is fractured at the top — when one of the top two players is like, ‘I’m out of here. The guy’s a liar’ — you’ve got no chance of winning,” McHale concluded. Especially if one of them gets fat and doesn’t feel like playing.
