Kevin McHale was shockingly fired by the Houston Rockets after a 4-7 start to the season, and now a report says James Harden pushed for the move.
CBS Sports’ Ken Berger reports that Harden pushed Houston’s management to get rid of McHale, who had led the team to the Western Conference finals a year earlier.
From Berger’s report:
Multiple league sources told CBS Sports that Harden pushed management to dump McHale, and has since angled for the Rockets to trade Howard. Rockets GM Daryl Morey delivered on the first demand, but was unable to find a suitable deal for Howard at the trade deadline this month.
The Rockets replaced McHale with J.B. Bickerstaff, who has gone 24-22 as interim head coach. The Rockets have not exactly turned it around without McHale, who recently said he was surprised by the firing. McHale also said Harden being out of shape and Dwight Howard’s back were big reasons for the slow start. It’s also not a surprise to hear that he tried to get Howard traded as multiple reports have attested to that.
If Harden’s input had a big impact on the team’s decision to fire McHale, that would be yet another signal of how influential star players can be. Howard once got Stan Van Gundy fired in Orlando, and recently many believe LeBron James got David Blatt fired in Cleveland despite the Cavs being first in the conference.
Having a star player on your team is great for a coach in that it helps lead to more success, but the duality to that is if the player is not happy with the coach, job security is an issue.
