The James Harden-Chris Paul started out great, with the team advancing to the Western Conference Finals and coming within one game of taking down the Golden State Warriors. Then, Chris Paul got hurt and he seemed to regress a bit in the postseason this past year.
There was also reported arguments between the two during the season, but that comes with the territory of two competitors wanting to win badly.
The Rockets’ front office tried to shoot down speculation that their relationship couldn’t be repaired, but that was thrown in the garbage when Paul suddenly got traded to the OKC Thunder in exchange for Russell Westbrook.
ESPN NBA insider Brian Windhorst threw more fire on the flame when he detailed a story that happened during the Rockets-Warriors series this past season.
“Chris and James got into it on the court, and it was just over a schematic thing, where it was a spacing issue. I think Chris was trying to post-up and he was standing too close to James and was allowing too easy of a double-team or whatever,” Windhorst recalled. “Chris barked at James, and James turned to him – and this was described to me by another player who was on the court – and he said, ‘with you it’s always f—ing something.’”
“It’s not even like it was that moment, but he’s had issues in the past with his teammates,” Windhorst added of Paul.
Harden will now get to play with his former Thunder teammate in Westbrook to see if they can co-exist for more than one season.
