Larry Brown Sports

An interview that started off friendly became heated after Rockets GM Daryl Morey asked a radio host for tougher questions, leading to him admitting the team probably won’t win the NBA championship next year.

Morey had finished introducing Jeremy Lin as the newest member of the Rockets when he joined “The J&R Show” with Josh Innes and Rich Lord on Sports Radio 610 in Houston Thursday. The GM fielded a fair amount of questions about the team before telling Innes to ask tougher questions. Innes obliged and began peppering Morey about the Rockets’ status as a near-.500 team the past three seasons, and Morey’s job security. That’s when things got tense and Morey admitted the reality of the team’s status.

“29 out of 30 teams every year are disappointed so you can move yourself to any freaking city and make that same comment,” he said in response to Innes, who pointed out that the team doesn’t appear to be close to winning a title.

“So you’re brilliant,” Morey continued. “We’re probably not going to win the title next year. You can be in almost any NBA city and you’re going to be right about that, so that’s a great comment,” he said sarcastically.

Morey also scoffed at the suggestion that the Rockets struggle to attract free agents.

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Rockets GM Daryl Morey already admitted he made a mistake by waiving point guard Jeremy Lin, but MSG president Scot O’Neil still felt the need to rub it in last week. At the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference last week, O’Neil handed Morey a Jeremy Lin Knicks jersey. One person in attendance says it was a thank you for helping to discover Lin, but we’re guessing it was also done as a joke. Business reporter Michele Steele says Morey plans to donate the autographed jersey to charity. We think he’s already done enough charity work by simply cutting Lin.

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Picture Credit: Andrea Blaylock

The Rockets were one of two teams that cut Jeremy Lin before the season. Houston GM Daryl Morey admitted Thursday that he and the team made a mistake by waiving the Knicks point guard.

Taking questions from fans via Twitter, the Rockets GM at first defended the decision to waive Lin, saying “[he] is a very good player but Linsanity was not happening here this year. We have 2 starting caliber PG in [Kyle Lowry] & [Goran Dragic]. [Johnny Flynn] also playing well.”

After that, another fan on Twitter told him to admit he made a mistake. Morey did.

Morey also said he was happy for Lin, calling the emerging guard “Very hard working, nice, & humble,” and saying “He has a great, great future.”

In Morey’s defense, at least he brought Lin into camp. There are 27 other teams that seemed to pass on him, so at least Houston gave him a shot. And like Morey says, Linsanity probably wasn’t happening there. Maybe New York was just the perfect storm for Lin — a good offensive system that fits his style, and very little point guard competition.

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