Harden took the power.

That's the N B A.

The billionaire owners have a de facto monopoly over professional basketball in North America, and if you want to play and get paid at the highest level, you have to do business with them.

So they have an enormous advantage over the players union when they negotiate the collective bargaining agreement right and in return, what the players do is use what leverage they had and in the n B A.

Unlike the NFL or any other sport, really, a superstar player has enormous leverage because players are not as fungible as they are in the NFL, right?

You could almost replace anyone, with the exception of a few quarterbacks, Um, they're not, as they have an outsized impact on the fortunes of your team, unlike major league baseball or even the best player ever.

You Adam to a team that could still be in last place, right?

So those superstars bend the letter of the law at the very least and violate the spirit of it for sure.

When they exercise leverage, that's how they do it.

James Harden, sending a strong signal here.

I don't wanna be here anymore.

You gotta let me go.

And he's right.

They have It's untenable.

You're not gonna be able to keep him there.

Okay, Now, what are we really seeing here?

What we're seeing here is what happens when Daryl Morey and Mike D'Antoni leave because for all the complaining and for Tito was on our show, Stephen A was on first take and he wants to win, and I get it.

But if what you were getting wasn't good enough, careful, because what's coming next might be a lot worse.

The fact of the matter is the Rockets never had the talent to compete with anyone.

They should have never been in the Western Conference finals in a Game seven against the Warriors with a healthy KD Clay, Steph Dre, the Warriors were fully loaded, right?

They had a 73 win team.

They added k d.

But they had to play a road game in a Game seven in the Western Conference finals.

And Chris Paul wasn't available because they hamstring and the Rockets had the worst shooting night of all time, at one point going zero for 27 from three and still the Warriors, only one by single digits.

There's no I'm not saying you can argue Stephen A.

Well, the Rockets wouldn't one anyway.

Fine.

I'm not even gonna argue that.

The point is the Rockets should have never come that close.

How were they able to get that close?

Because Daryl Morey is playing chess to a lot of GM checkers, and Mike D'Antoni was willing to say, The hell with what anyone thinks.

This is the way we're playing.

It's it's ugly.

If people will criticize if it doesn't work in the playoffs because we don't have enough talent is the truth.

I don't care, and it got them way closer than they ought to have been.

Now what happens?

Fertitta thought.

You know that's not good enough.

Now Daryl Morey is gone.

All hell breaks loose.

Welcome to the way everyone else lives.

When you don't have a truly great GM in place, this is what happens.

Did they give James Harden too much power?

Stephen A.

You have to ask yourself if you're in owner in the n B A.

Do you want a superstar or not?

Because really, you probably need to to win to win a championship.

Two superstars, Not just one, because this is what happens when you have a superstar.

You have to play ball with them because they exert enormous influence.

They do have leverage.

So either you want to be a great team of the chance for a championship or you don't want to deal with this headache.

It's one or the other.

You're missing the point and the reason why you're missing the point.

Max Kellerman is because you're talking about what James Harden is doing now as he's trying to exit from the Houston Rockets.

The story that was published today is what he was doing when he was happy when he got his money when he had his GM when he had his head coach.

When he had to play his he chose.

There's a difference, and what I'm talking about is when you have that backdrop, this is what you are when you're happy.

Then you sit up here and you act like this.

Now, even though I completely support him wanting out of Houston, if that's what you want, that's what you want.

I don't like the fact that he's doing that with Stephen Solace, an African American who told you know who worked for 20 years as an assistant.

But the point is, is that he is doing now what some people are saying he did when he was happy.

And then you brought up the Warriors.

I got news.

You could sit up there and say they should.

You're sure that probably you could sit up there and say they should have gone to the finals, Fine.

But other than the Warriors, there was nobody better than them in the Western Conference, so they absolutely should have been in the Western Conference finals.

There's nobody better than in the Western Conference because of the way they played ball.

They didn't have so much talent on that team.

They had James Harden on that team and Chris Paul was hurt.

And yet, still, they extended the Warriors in that game, even when they had a miserable shooting performance.

Wait, here's my point, Stephen A.

It's interesting to me.

I'm not debating that point with you.

Now we're examining you're doing the post mortem.

Seeing what happened, maybe they spoil them a little bit or or gave him too much power.

I understand that you could get into that.

It's interesting to me, the bigger picture.

And Tim Man did excellent reporting.

I'm not saying, but it's all over the press now.

Today it's every was not just Tim MacMahon the ringer in a lot of different places or bringing this issue up.

And as you mentioned, where does that come from?

The team leaks.

Isn't it interesting how right now, all the negative stories that paint harden is spoiled, and if anything, the Rocket says, Well, there, too nice.

Isn't that interesting?

That comes out today?

Well, come on, a little said in the past.

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