Former Houston Rockets head coach and 3 times NBA champion Kevin McHale gave an interesting opinion on Friday about NBA superstar James Harden. McHale, who currently works as an NBA analysts, said that Harden doesn’t have what it takes to be a leader while praising the fact that the Rockets managed to get Chris Paul.
“James can see all the passes and do everything, but James is not a leader,” McHale said about Harden. “He tried being a leader last year, tried doing all that stuff. I think Chris Paul is going to help him just kind of get back into just being able to hoop and play and stuff like that.“
“On every team, you have to have a voice.” – McHale continued. “On every team, you have to have somebody that when they say something, people listen. Like if James tells you, ‘You’ve got to play better D,’ are you going to listen to him? I lived through it. Believe me, everybody in the locker room did this [put their head down with their hand on their forehead]. Every time he mentioned defense, everybody would put their head down.“
Kevin McHale spent his entire basketball playing career with the Boston Celtics, winning 3 titles and receiving multiple honors including two NBA Sixth Man of the Year awards and being named to NBA All-Star games selection seven times. McHale started his coaching career with two stints as a head coach of Minnesota Timberwolves, before being named Houston Rockets’ head coach in 2011. After losing in the First Round of NBA Playoffs in his first two seasons, McHale managed to lead the Rockets to Western Conference Finals in 2015 where they suffered a lost from the Golden State Warriors. After a bad start of the 2015-16 NBA season, where the Rockets were 4–7 with 4 consecutive losses, McHale was fired.
