[CBS Sports] Harden pushed for McHale's firing & angled for Howard trade

I didn't believe it when Howard supposedly requested to be traded. And, I don't believe Harden supposedly requested the firing of McHale or trading of Howard.

There is some kind of witch hunt against the Rockets...either around the league and/or in the media. It's really, really disgusting. All you unnamed sources...go F yourselves!

 

It's very possible that the unnamed sources are people who have a strong desire to tank the Rockets ability to pursue free agents or coaches this offseason.

 

If Harden got McHale fired, then that would mean he didnt embrace McHale heavy ISO offense or allowing ppl to slack off on defense.

Why would he want a coach fired who was enabling him? And would that be a thing a leader would do. get rid of the coach who coddling him for one that is holds ppl accountable for the betterment of the team

believing this and getting mad at harden for it is a wee bit coutradictory to the narrative that harden is running the asylum

 

THat kind of ability to allow mutually exclusive realities to simultaneously exist is a hallmark of the Harden hate chorus ... it's the same type of thing that leads one to right long, ill-considered screeds about the necessity of midrange jumpers and the need for "the seasoned eye" in the middle of the Warriors historic run of "Strength in Numbers" dominance.

 

The sad thing is I think stuff like this has gotten to Dwight. Yes it is very possible I am wrong and reading way too much into it.
But his interview after the game with Bullard he shouted out the defense but not a single word about James' play. Could be nothing. I think its something. Could sense his body language, despite having a great game, wasn't loving being out there.

 

The Harden narrative doesn't add up. But at the time of the firing, none of the players, including Harden as the leader, said anything to the effect that they liked the coach and were surprised to see him go. You know, the sort of things that would be polite to say even if you didn't mean it 100%.

It was quite obvious that McHale had lost the players. Harden and Co. didn't feel bad seeing him canned. I am pretty sure the FO knew that whether Harden directly told them to fire the coach or not.

 

Me, Top_five, Top_five's GF and my GF actually met Tad Brown at the Blazer game. There were two things he was absolutely adamant about:

1) Harden isn't the coach killing chemistry ruining star the media wants to portray him as. Firing Mac was something that was on the table for a while, after that start the writing was sort of on the wall for McHale. It wasn't a Harden or Howard based decision. Harden also was not actively coming to management asking for a Howard trade. The whole article mentioned sources that Berger wouldn't identify, and the rest was speculation on quotes taken out of context.

2) The Rockets will not tank, ever. It starts at the top. Les doesn't believe in tanking and the organization think it's a deplorable means to a pick. Tad brought up an example during the Scola/Lowry days saying that Rockets management mulled over tanking, but Les came in and instantly nixed the idea.

Overall, he was a nice candid guy. Came up to us as we gushed over the players during shoot around and we just shot the ***** about the team. Gotta say I don't think this is spin, I think sports media has found a story that is more intriguing than Steph Curry's assertion to illegal screen God level so they run wild with it. Take it for what it's worth.

 

No, sorry,,,,not true. Both Brewer and Howard talked about it at length. Brewer even said he thought he let McHale down. They very much sounded surprised and voiced gratitude.

By comparison, Harden's quote at the end of the linked article seems trite, but he did indeed say he liked McHale (which fulfills your requirement that they should say something nice).

<a href="http://www.houstonchronicle.com/sports/rockets/article/Brewer-says-players-responsible-for-McHale-s-6642582.php">Brewer says players' poor play to blame for McHale's firing</a>

But besides that, on that day, Les was about as vocal (and certainly the most pissed) that I've ever seen him. It was clearly Les's firing, without a doubt at all.

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/spo...-Kevin-McHale-seek-a-new-voice-to-6641826.php

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http://www.houstonchronicle.com/spo...-Kevin-McHale-seek-a-new-voice-to-6641826.php

Alexander, Morey and Rockets president Tad Brown discussed the move Tuesday, opted to sleep on it and then met with McHale on Wednesday. McHale said he could have turned the Rockets around, but he understood the decision.

"The team was obviously not responding - on offense, on defense - they weren't playing hard," Alexander said. "It continued for a while. I considered four or five games losing by 20 points something we can't take here. I've never seen my team in the 23 years (as owner) play as poorly and with less effort. I'm not attributing it to the coach. I'm attributing it to circumstances. Who knows whose control it is? But I had to do something to make a change. It couldn't keep going on like this. Do I want to watch us lose over and over and over again?"

Morey: "Mr. Alexander does not accept losing. I don't accept losing. The players, no one accepts losing. We've been the fifth-most winning franchise since Mr. Alexander has owned the team. We're going to do whatever it takes to win. We had to make the tough call of what is the best thing to be done to get our season on track. I'm very confident we can turn this around."

Alexander was not so sure. His confidence left with the coach he showed the door.

"I won't have confidence until it happens," Alexander said. "I'm not confident right now, no. How can I be confident?"
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How anyone can remember that day and how furious Les was and how vocal he was and think this was the FO catering to Harden is absurd....not to mention the amount of money he is paying McHale. So, there's that narrative, too. You can't say Le$ is cheap, and say Harden swayed him in any way to fire McHale on such a long contract.

It annoys me to no end that the media will invent this story and ignore ALL these comments from the owner on the day of the event.

 

To help your memory: http://blog.chron.com/ultimaterockets/2015/11/rockets-players-react-to-firing-of-coach-kevin-mchale/

Brewer: “I don’t think (McHale) lost the locker room,” Brewer said. “This isn’t a fractured locker room. We just haven’t been playing like we should be. We have new pieces, different things to put together, but right now it’s about being men, looking in the mirror and coming out and playing hard every night.”

Howard: “We are all sad about the decision. (McHale) was great to me. We had a good relationship. He is a great guy and it was sad for all of us.”

Harden: “These past few years has been great, him coaching me. So best of luck to Mac in everything he’s going through.”

Jones: “It was an honor and a blessing to play for Kevin McHale, I mean that."

You can judge whether any of that was sincere. They did at least say the polite things.

 

Thanks, heypartner and JuanValdez, for correcting me.

 

KAT may end up being better than Harden and he's easier to build around. Minny would never trade KAT.

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Rockets CEO: James Harden Didn't Push to Fire Kevin McHale and Trade Dwight Howard <a href="https://t.co/FbOXbdFAFX">https://t.co/FbOXbdFAFX</a> <a href="https://t.co/bftoLDCf1E">pic.twitter.com/bftoLDCf1E</a></p>&mdash; SLAM Magazine (@SLAMonline) <a href="https://twitter.com/SLAMonline/status/703283412468019200">February 26, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

Strong indeed!

You have to wonder if Ken Berger's "sources" are RIVAL GMs or teams just trying to stir stuff up with the Rockets to lessen their chances at Durant and other good FAs. I could totally see this.

I am not one to go around saying "our team isn't getting respect" or "everyone hating us..".....but let's be real here, media/fans are using the Rockets as a punching bag right now. Just rolling with their narrative.

 

Not to mention that the people attacking Harden for this wanted McHale fired anyway.

Shouldn't they be cheering Harden for this?

 

Interesting that it could be rival GMs putting out false rumors to hurt us in free agency. Hell, Harden bashing could even be Fegan rumors in order to protect Howard from blame.

But, I'm not big on conspiracies. Using Ockam's Razor, I still believe it's simpler: People use the new twitter phenomenon of the internet to make up stories as a way to increase their brand via clicks. That theory is simplest, but we know it occurs in celebrity gossip, and has been successful even before the internet. With twitter, reporters aren't being held accountable like they used to if it went to print, yet it has the power of print.

bottomline: when we question what is the truth, we should always question whether the reporter actually has sources or is making it up. And I'm talking about the primary origin. Clearly there care cases of people recycling stories from some primary reporter as if they are true, citing the fake sources of the primary. It's piggy-backing clicks.

 

Journalistic integrity has been destroyed with the advent of Social media...People would completely trash folks using "anonymous sauces" without verifying its veracity. Its an epidemic in sports media, and frankly what keeps these hacks relevant these days. The very fact that Tad, the CEO, had to come out and rip Berger and the CBS article just proves this very point. People will do anything to "fluff up" their story if it means more internet traffic. Unfortunately no one is being held accountable, and journalist and sports media personalities are NOT doing their jobs.

 

The problem is people will always believe the initial report.

Tad Brown might be, and probably is, completely being honest that none of it ever happened, but the masses will always flock to Berger's initial report and say Tad is just trying to save face.

 

Old hate hard Amin on sportsnation saying there's no doubt that Harden did it all because there were too many different reports for it not to be true.

He also said Harden has become Dwight Howard. The guy who got the good coach fired, who people used to love and now hate and the guy that no one in the league wants to play with.

Some of the people ESPN employs really make you wonder...

 

So what does the bold have anything to do with Harden? Do people consider him a "leader" actually?

Are you of the opinion that if Harden really wanted McHale to stay, and all these reports came out saying otherwise, that he would not come out and vehemently and repeatedly say that he wanted McHale to stay and that he was disappointed at the decision and how it reflected on him and the team?

 

And then you have people "parroting" that take. That's how all of this BS keeps a float.