“James Harden and Daryl Morey were the first to contact Doc Rivers after he got fired”: The Sixers superstar and executive reached out to Rivers to coach in Houston

James Harden and Daryl Morey were the first to try to recruit Doc Rivers to the Houston Rockets after he was fired from the Clippers. 

James Harden and Ben Simmons were part of perhaps the biggest ‘disgruntled superstar’ trade in recent NBA history. Woj and Shams broke the news almost simultaneously on trade deadline day and the entirety of the landscape in the Eastern Conference changed with Simmons now a Brooklyn Net and Harden a 76er. 

Daryl Morey is once again reunited with James Harden after nearly a year’s worth of stalling to see if they could trade Ben for top tier guard talent. With Damian Lillard, Bradley Beal, and Harden being the three on Morey’s list, he got exactly what he wanted despite the public urging him to accept less impressive offers.

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Doc Rivers, the current Philadelphia 76ers head coach, only took the job up because he was intrigued with the pairing of Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons. Simmons not being on the roster anymore shouldn’t be a problem however as James has reportedly wanted to be coached by him all along. 

Doc Rivers was first contacted by James Harden and Daryl Morey after getting let go. 

After being let go by the Clippers following the 2020 Clippers collapse, it was speculated he would retire from coaching altogether. Of course, as mentioned above, the Embiid-Simmons duo is what led him to take up the Sixers. Prior to taking it up however, he was contacted by both James Harden and Daryl Morey.

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According to ESPN’s Ramona Shelbourne on the Anthony Gargano show, James Harden was the first person to contact Rivers after getting fired by the Clippers. 

“Doc Rivers gets fired from LA and there’s a sense that he’s going to work for ESPN or Turner. He gets a phone call, the first call he gets, it’s from James Harden. He wants him to coach him in Houston. Mike D’Antoni just got fired. The second call he gets is from Daryl Morey saying, ‘We want you to come coach in Houston.’” 

Fast-forward a year and half and Morey has gotten exactly what he wanted with both Rivers and now, Harden, manning the helm.