Former NBA player Stephen Jackson ripped James Harden for his late arrival to Houston Rockets camp, accusing him of undermining new coach Stephen Silas.
Jackson posted audio of himself to his Instagram, stating that Harden is avoiding accountability and is hurting a young Black coach’s career to “chase rappers around.”
“James Harden don’t want to be held accountable. [Mike] D’Antoni is the worst defensive coach in NBA history, ain’t gonna win s—, ain’t won s— as a head coach. He easy to run over. So James is trying to continue to be around close to D’Antoni so he can’t be held accountable,” Jackson said. “The Rockets finally get a young Black coach. A young Black coach get an opportunity, and you don’t want to show up to camp. You don’t want to play for him. How that look? And you wonder why every time a Black coach get a job, they put him in a bulls— situation. Look what you doing.
“What a real one would do is go play for that Black coach and make him look good and build with John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins, some real ones. But obviously you want to chase rappers around.”
Silas spent his first press conference of camp answering questions about Harden’s absence, so it is fair to say Harden put Silas in a tougher situation than necessary. Jackson is also clearly unimpressed with what Harden was doing instead of showing up to camp. The longer Harden keeps quiet about it, the more we’ll likely hear.
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