ESPN analyst Kendrick Perkins released another bombshell on Friday, claiming he knows what really happened behind the scenes of James Harden-Russell Westbrook’s separation from the Rockets before the 2020-21 campaign began.
According to the retired NBA player, it was The Beard’s uninterrupted party over the season that angered Westbrook and led to his switch request after just a year with the Houston Rockets.
Perk revealed the interesting details about James Posey’s Posecast (via Alex Kennedy from BasketballNews) Here is the full clip:
.@KendrickPerkins says James Harden’s party led to Russell Westbrook’s exchange request.
“[If they had some days off], James was in a private [jet] to Cabo! In the private of Tilman Fertitta [jet] on what! Russ is like … ‘I don’t have all the parties.’ “
🎧: https://t.co/QEROFRt8Rj pic.twitter.com/gKh5EMRgTi
– Alex Kennedy (@AlexKennedyNBA) January 16, 2021
James Harden’s off-court lifestyle, of course, has been documented for most of his career. While what he does in his leisure time is purely his business, it becomes problematic to do so when an NBA season is in progress. Russell Westbrook, on the other hand, is a formidable competitor.
As far as Perkins is concerned, Brodie was surprised to see how Harden likes to run things in H-Town. The Westbrook-Harden meeting last year had its moments and the Rockets still finished fourth in the West (44-28), despite the supposed turbulence between the two stars. But Houston crashed and burned in the second round of the 2020 playoffs against the eventual Los Angeles Lakers champion.
Westbrook was transferred to the Washington Wizards by John Wall. A few months later, Harden’s desire to join the Brooklyn Nets team also came true. It is useless to look back now on how good the two ex-MVPs would have been together with the Rockets if they tried again this year. Still, that Harden-Westbrook duo was fun while it lasted.
