The Houston Rockets have been one of the most successful franchises during the regular season over the past few years, but no matter where they finished in the standings they were never able to carry that success over to the postseason as they haven’t made it to the NBA Finals since the 1994-95 season.
It seemed as if they finally put the right pieces in place with James Harden and Chris Paul leading the way, but after getting bounced in the second round of the playoffs last year, they knew they needed a change, Harden in particular.
According to Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated, Harden apparently approached Rockets head coach Mike D’Antoni following their elimination and told him they needed to get rid of Chris Paul if they wanted to win. Here’s how Spears detailed it to Zach Lowe on a recent podcast.
Spears: “The one thing that I heard, which I will say this, because I have to preface it, that I have to see to believe, but from one rumor – I’ve got to put exclamation point before I say it, right? I don’t know this is fact. But I was told that James ran up to Coach D’Antoni and put his hand over his mic – because D’Antoni was mic’d – and told him, “We’ve got to get Chris out of here.”
ESPN’s Zach Lowe: “Out of the game?”
Spears: “No.”
Lowe: “Out of here here?”
Spears: “Out of here here.”
This is just another case of off-court drama we’ll never really know the true answer to – unless Harden comes out and says he asked for the team to trade CP3 – so it’s all just speculation. But considering how quickly things went down in the offseason it really isn’t all that shocking if this really did happen.
