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Daryl Morey has received a lot of criticism in recent years for his ineffective style of management. One of the common things he's been alleged to do to maintain control over players is lying to them, as James Harden claimed over the summer. Now, former Morey player Chris Paul, who was on the Rockets till 2019, revealed how Morey flat-out lied to him before moving him to the OKC Thunder.
(Starts at 1:34:00)
“I go over to the gym to go work out and Daryl call me… He said ‘I was just calling you to make sure you didn’t wanna go to OKC.’ I was like, ‘No, why I done moved 15 people to Houston.’ And he was like, ‘Okay I was just making sure.’ He was like ‘I would never trade you to somewhere you didn’t want to go because you chose to come to us from the Clippers.’ I chose to go to Houston from LA.”
Paul said Morey almost instantly traded him after this conversation and even called Chris to discuss the move.
“I’m at the house chilling, I was on the phone with Jada [his wife], and next thing you know [the alert] said that I was getting traded [to OKC]. Then my phone started ringing and it was Daryl calling. So I ain’t know… Daryl was like, ‘Hey man, it just moves so fast.’ I said, ‘It’s all good I just want you to tell me one thing. You said you wasn’t going to trade me, right?’ He said, ‘Yeah I said that but–’ I said, ‘That’s all I needed to know.’”
Morey is a ruthless operator and is willing to burn any and all bridges to get what he wants. He and James Harden had one of the great player-executive relationships in league history before Morey allegedly lied to Harden about a contract extension, prompting James to force a trade to the Clippers.
He's currently trying to build a team around Joel Embiid but it doesn't look like they can win a title this year after a major knee injury to Embiid keeping his return timeline unclear. But even with Embiid, he's likely a superstar in Morey's eyes until it serves his purpose. If Embiid had injury issues that would mean he can't perform at an MVP level again, Morey would likely move him for assets before you could blink.
Chris Paul Reveals How Morey Disrespeced Carmelo Anthony
Carmelo Anthony was playing on the Rockets alongside Paul and Harden before Morey released Anthony 14 games into the season. Melo had declined, but that was an incredibly harsh move that even upset the franchise stars. CP3 opened up on what happened there, revealing Anthony was in tears.
“Melo was in tears and I know how much he gave to the game but throughout the whole process of him coming to Houston me and Melo would talk about… all this stuff, I never said this is going to happen or not going to happen. So he tells me what happens with Daryl and I was like what? He came in his room told him he’d get him a flight back to New York, how do you say this to this man? Some of the most disrespectful sh*t I seen."
Carmelo's career was nearing its end, but Morey's lack of empathy with players is appalling to see. He treats them as commodities to maximize his team-building assets. He's made some strong rosters, but it shouldn't be a surprise that Morey is yet to win a title in his role.
More must-reads:
- Key Knicks forward ruled out for Game 7 vs. Pacers
- Watch: Thunder go on 24-6 run to close out first half of Game 6 vs. Mavericks
- The 'Most triple-doubles in the postseason' quiz
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