Report: Ime Udoka squashed James Harden’s return to the Rockets

Photo by David Dow/NBAE via Getty ImagesMany of y’all already figured this to be the case, but we finally got some confirmation from a major media source when ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne reported in her article yesterday that it was new Houston Rockets head coach Ime Udoka who squashed James Harden’s potential return to H-town this offseason.

Harden was reportedly very interested in coming back to the Rockets — though there were many (myself included) who felt he was using Houston for leverage in his contract issues with the Philadelphia 76ers — but the interest was said by the rumor mill to be mutual between Harden and the Rockets.

But according to Shelburne, it was important for Udoka to focus…