James Harden and Chris Paul involved in heated verbal exchange after Game 6 loss to Warriors as reported by Shams Charania
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NBA news continues its whackiness as we wait for the Eastern Conference Finals to end and the NBA Finals to begin. Our top stories these days are whether Drake should be allowed to massage Nick Nurse’s shoulders and jeer Giannis and whether Chris Broussard and Kevin Durant text each other, and if the do, is it a text if its a social media DM? Wow!
James Harden and Chris Paul involved in heated verbal exchange
To add to the excitement we have another update of two teammates possibly having a verbal exchange, or in simpler terms, talking to each other. The James Harden-Chris Paul Rockets flamed out last season while holding a 3-2 series lead agains the Warriors and while they claimed CP3’s injury prevented them from getting it last season, they had no excuses this time round, by going 2-0 against the non-KD Warriors in the final 2 games, with a healthy Chris Paul.
The Rockets are a team hated by NBA fans for the amount of complaining they do, so when they went down in flames after building a roster specifically to beat the Warriors for the 4th time in 5 years, there were bound to be complaints. This time tough, they internalized their complaints.
Shams Charania of the Athletic reported earlier today that after the game 6 loss to the Warriors, the two Rockets superstars, Harden and Chris Paul had a verbal exchange that may have been based on the CP3s complaints to Mike D’Antoni about the Houston’s style of play, their offensive design and the late game ball handling duties and how its divided between Harden and Paul.
Harden and Paul as a duo were scoffed at the beginning when the Rockets traded for CP3, but quickly found a ball sharing system where they complimented each other in alternate possessions. But apparently after a 2nd consecutive year of losing to the Warriors, Paul and Harden are not completely happy.
For large parts of the series, especially in the closing minutes of both games 5 and 6, Paul played really well and Harden disappeared for long parts. But then towards the end of game 6 the Rockets still went to Harden despite CP3 being flaming hot in the minutes preceding it.
It is unclear if that is the reason or its something else, but CP3 had words with D’Antoni about the ball handling duties and that seems to be the reason, there were “verbal exchanges” between Harden and Paul.
Paul still has 3 years left on this deal and with his age and injury history his contract is not tradable. So the Rockets need to put this behind them and figure things out for the future, or they will squander the future of James Harden the way they have done his past.
