James Harden came in ‘fat’, got me fired after playoff benching: Kevin McHale

Kevin McHale hasn’t forgotten getting undermined by James Harden.

Harden this week has been expressing his dismay with a 3rd group up to now a number of years, calling Sixers president Daryl Morey a “liar” and declaring his intention to not play for the crew once more.

This comes after he additionally forced his way out of Houston and Brooklyn.

McHale, the 65-year-old ex-Celtics nice, coached Harden in Houston from 2012-15 and recalled the mercurial star tanking his tenure.

With the Clippers up 3-2 within the second spherical of the 2015 Western Convention playoffs, McHale benched Harden within the fourth quarter of Recreation 6; the Rockets would go on to win each that and Recreation 7, earlier than getting crushed by the Warriors in 5 video games within the convention finals.

In line with McHale, Harden brooded and concocted a plot of revenge.

“The subsequent yr he got here to camp, he was fats and didn’t really feel like enjoying, and I acquired fired [11] video games into the season,” McHale told Heavy.com. “He had a plan.”

Due to this fact, McHale was not stunned on the newest developments of Harden attempting to blow it up in Philadelphia.

“Yeah, not a lot,” McHale mentioned.

McHale additionally had an fascinating principle on the connection between Harden and Morey — whom he additionally labored with in Houston — broke down.

“I’ve been concerned in one million conferences as a coach and GM, and, you understand, gamers hear what they wish to hear a whole lot of occasions. And Daryl’s sensible,” McHale mentioned.

“My entire tackle the factor is I believe Daryl’s actually attached with James, however I believe possession checked out it. Let’s face it, if the proprietor appears to be like at you and says, ‘We’re signing that dude,’ you’re signing that dude. Story’s over. And if the proprietor appears to be like at you and says, ‘We’re not signing that dude,’ you’re not signing him.”