Golden State Warriors guard Chris Paul takes issue with the way Philadelphia 76ers GM Daryl Morey operates, and he certainly isn’t alone in NBA circles.
Last summer, in an attempt to free himself from the Sixers, James Harden publicly called Morey a “liar” multiple times and demanded that the 76ers find a trade for him.
Harden seemingly would have some backing from Paul. In a recent appearance on Dwyane Wade’s podcast “The Why with Dwyane Wade,” Paul described how Morey—then the GM of the Houston Rockets—let former NBA star Carmelo Anthony go after 10 games with the franchise in 2018-19, which Paul felt was one of the “most disrespectful” things he’s seen in his 19 NBA seasons.
According to Paul, the Rockets were in San Antonio when Anthony texted Paul while he was out with his family to ask if he knew about the move. Paul was blindsided.
Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images
“I called Melo and said, ‘Dog, what’s going?'” Paul recalled. “He said Daryl came to his room, and if you know Daryl—no people skills. Real talk, he don’t really understand how to talk to people.”
Paul said he went back to Anthony’s hotel room to talk to the star, who was working through the complicated emotions that come with the latter half of a basketball career.
“Melo was in tears man, like seriously, and I was right there with him, because I knew how much he gave to the game,” Paul said.
What rubbed Paul the wrong way most, however, was Morey’s ensuing offer to the 10-time All-Star. Per Paul, Morey told Anthony he could return with the Rockets to Houston on the team plane.
“That was some of the most disrespectful s*** I’ve ever seen,” Paul said.
Instead, Paul rented a private jet to fly Anthony back to Houston. He and his wife Jada rode on it as well.
“I think I might have hit Daryl or something like that too, and just told him how worked up [Anthony] was and how disrespectful that was,” Paul said.
The next season, Anthony told ESPN he warned Paul to be careful in Houston.
“Just be careful,” Anthony said at the time. “And damn sure if [the same situation] didn’t happen to him.”
Paul, who signed with the Rockets in 2017 after six years with the Los Angeles Clippers, was traded from Houston to the Oklahoma City Thunder in the summer of 2019. He told Wade that Morey explicitly said Paul wouldn’t be traded to the Thunder in a phone call shortly after Kawhi Leonard signed with the Clippers.
“Daryl was like, ‘Hey Chris, I was just calling you […] just to make sure you wouldn’t want to go to OKC,'” Paul said. “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 ain’t want to go because you chose to come to us from the Clippers.’ I chose to go to Houston from LA. That’s what he had said to me.”
Shortly afterward, however, Morey called Paul to inform him that he was, in fact, headed to the Thunder.
“Daryl was like, ‘Hey man, it just moved so fast.’ That’s what he said,” Paul told Wade. “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? To OKC?’ He said, ‘Yeah but …’ I said, ‘That’s all I needed to know.'”
Newsweek reached out to the Rockets on Thursday afternoon by email requesting comment.
Paul was traded this summer to the Warriors as part of a deal that sent guard Jordan Poole to the Wizards. He and the Warriors take on the New York Knicks in New York at 7:30 p.m. ET on TNT.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.