Tad Brown, the Houston Rockets' Chief Executive Officer, had strongly denied that their team leader and All-Star shooting guard James Harden had demanded for former head coach Kevin McHale to be fired and for fellow All-Star Dwight Howard to be traded before this year's deadline.
The Rockets CEO was talking to local reporters on Thursday when he refuted recent reports that the 26-year-old, four-time All-Star was responsible for the two major activities within the organization this season.
"I can tell you unequivocally, being part of that (front-office) team, those things have never happened," said Brown, just before tipoff of the Houston-Portland matchup. Harden led the team to the 119-105 comeback win over the Blazers that night.
"That's frustrating, and, for whatever reason, it's been a constant throughout this season. As we struggle and as we continue to struggle a little bit on the court, trying to get things to where we want them to be, that people have continued to take shots at our guys, take shots at our team, with unnamed sources being the ones who routinely provide that information," Brown added.
CBS Sports' Ken Berger reported on Thursday that "Harden pushed management to dump McHale, and has since angled for the Rockets to trade Howard", citing "multiple league sources" as his supplier.
Berger also quoted Harden with regards to NBA stars having an opinion about organizational issues and how much say they could have about it.
"This is the team that they go out there and compete with, so (star players) should have some kind of say-so," said Harden, as quoted by Berger. "Obviously, the owners and the general managers and those guys have the final decision, but the star player should have some kind of input."
"If you're the star player and you're going out there trying to lead that team every single night," Harden said, "I think that should be the case," the 26-year-old shooting guard added.
However, ESPN noted that Brown was adamant that "the (Rockets) front-office dynamic involving any firing goes through owner Leslie Alexander, himself and Morey".
The Rockets are currently at the eighth spot in the Western Conference standings with a 29-29 record following Thursday's win.