It turns out that Ime Udoka may have something to do with James Harden who suddenly walked away from returning to Houston this summer.
Steve Bullpitt of Heavy Sports I mentioned Friday Odoka, the new Rockets head coach, closed the team’s interest in a potential reunion with Harden.
“From everything we got from there, that was a matter Ime didn’t want [Harden]Polpit quoted a source in the league as saying. At first, were they thinking of Hardin? Yes. But then they hired Amy, and Amy said, ‘He’s not going to work here.'”
Former MVP Harden has been linked with a possible return to Houston (where he played from 2012-21) for several months prior to the start of free agency. But the Rockets hired former Boston Celtics coach Odoka in April and went in a different direction with their roster. They signed another star guard, Fred VanVleet, to a three-year, $130 million deal and gave that An extra contract so big that they were laughed at for it.. Meanwhile, Harden picked up his contract for the next season with the Philadelphia 76ers and In confrontation with the franchise as he tries to get them to trade him.
Harden is getting old (he will be 34 next month) and has the kind of personality that could control an entire organization. There is, too There were serious concerns about Harden’s work ethicso you can’t really blame Udoka for not wanting to deal with all that on the new rebuild team.