Despite making it to last season’s Western Conference finals, Rockets management decided to let go of coach McHale early on in the season after the Rockets got off to a slow 4-7 start.
Regarding his firing, McHale said he was “surprised” before offering somewhat of an explanation as to why the Rockets struggled early, saying, “We had a rough camp…Dwight couldn’t do back-to-back practices…James had sprained his ankle in the summer, came in overweight“.
When I first read McHale’s remarks I thought he was throwing some of the players under the bus. After watching video of McHale making the comments, however, I didn’t have any problem with what he said.