It was May 19. That was the last time it felt like Kevin McHale was on a real high as the Houston Rockets' coach.
The Western Conference Finals had yet to begin, and the concept of firing the coach to whom they'd given a three-year contract extension at Christmas wasn't even a glint in the eyes of owner Leslie Alexander and general manager Daryl Morey.
What did shine in their eyes was a certain gold trophy they felt was finally close.
Alas, that night the Rockets would lose the first of three consecutive games to a clearly superior, tighter-knit Golden State Warriors group. As the series wore on, the Rockets showed fundamental limitations as a team beyond James Harden's creativity. They would be gone in five.
And they would look even worse in starting this season 4-7, triggering McHale's removal Wednesday, barely into his fifth Houston season, in favor of interim head coach J.B. Bickerstaff, as first reported by Yahoo Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski.
Despite the timing, less than a month into the season, it isn't surprising whatsoever that this 6'10" square-shouldered peg was rashly removed from what was ...
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Article written by Kevin Ding
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