Chris Paul last year he reached the NBA Finals for the first time, but over the course of his career he has come close above all with the Houston Rockets jersey. In its two years in Texas, especially the first, the Rockets were a battleship capable of carrying a team on the level of the 2018 Golden State Warriors up to Game 7 of the conference finals, after going above for 3-2 in the series. In the last two games, however, Chris Paul was unable to take the field for one muscle injury, preventing them from playing their chances of reaching the finals until the very last – where they would have crossed a non-irresistible version of LeBron James’ Cleveland Cavaliers, with excellent chances of playing it. In a conversation with Gilbert Arenas, however, CP3 also has admitted another regret: that of not having had a clear relationship with James Harden.
deepening
Houston, Harden and Paul no longer get along
In the course of the chat Arenas told him, “When you were in Houston, the thing I kept saying was: ‘The only way they can win is for James to understand what his gift is and what yours is‘. As a coach you have to draw a clear line and have a difficult conversation like: ‘James, until the last 5 minutes of the game the ball is yours. But in the last 5 minutes, the ball goes into CP’s hands‘”. Paul hasn’t denied that version of events – as early as his senior year in Houston there was talk of how he had repeatedly asked coach Mike D’Antoni to make the Rockets’ attack less Harden-centric – and added: “You have to be able to have such conversations. But the thing that frustrated me the most is that in the first year I was not healthy. Those seasons in Houston are a little blurry, because a lot of things have happened. But we were strong. We were really strong. And James knows how to score like nobody, crazy stuff. I wouldn’t trade that experience with anyone else, but I wished those conversations had been made. Above all, however, I wanted to be healthy “.
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