On Friday, former Rockets coach Kevin McHale said James Harden was “not a leader”.The superstar has not been long in coming up with an answer.
“He’s a clown, to be honest,”Harden said after the rockets practice on Saturday,”I did absolutely everything he asked me to do.I’ve been trying to lead this team every day since I got here.To sit down in front of the camera and get my name dirty, even though he honestly never taught me anything about leadership…”
McHale was Harden’s coach in Houston for just over three seasons and together they reached the 2015 conference finals.However, the former coach, who currently works as an analyst for NBA TV, had stressed that Harden was not a leader because of his defensive weakness and lack of credibility.Harden did not abandon this idea.
“You can ask anyone here, my coaches, my teammates – I work extremely hard every day to get better as a player and as a leader,”Harden said,”The fact that he says something like that in front of the camera only shows his character.I don’t usually answer to such a question, but now I stand up for myself.You don’t do that.It only shows what kind of person he is.”
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Harden went on to say that McHale is still disappointed that he was fired from the Rockets at the start of the 2015/2016 season,”What I had nothing to do with,”the All-Star explained,”I’m not that kind of person.I don’t talk about people behind my back.I don’t tell them one thing, and then I put myself in front of the camera to say something completely different.”
Harden’s current coach Mike D’ Antoni was interviewed on Saturday about McHale’s statements.His experience is a completely different one, D’ Antoni says:”In my experience, he is unbelievably great as a leader.I became coach of the year last year because of him and the others.”
“He did everything I asked him to do,”D’ Antoni explained.”And I asked him a lot.I retrained him to become a Point Guard, and I asked him to talk more in the Defense.He took everything.We had very good chemistry.He is the first one to get in touch with everyone in summer and the one who organises team evenings and that sort of thing.That’s why I can’t agree with the criticism.”