Kevin McHale Says James Harden Came Into This Season Overweight

Kevin McHale joined the Inside the NBA telecast on TNT on Tuesday. The segment was of intrigue because McHale was fired from the Rockets (who were the Warriors’ sacrificial lamb du jour) after the team started 4-7 this season, despite making the Western Conference finals last year. What went wrong?

“Dwight [Howard] couldn’t do back-to-back practices, and wasn’t going to be able to do back-to-back games until December, James Harden had sprained his ankle during the summer and came in overweight, and we just weren’t playing very well.”

McHale thought it was going to take a month or six weeks for the team to gel, and said his firing caught him by surprise. In any event, his quick remark about Haren—even though he qualified it with an injury—may not be the best endorsement for athletes eating Taco Bell breakfast.