Former NBA player Stephen Jackson has criticized Houston Rockets'James Harden for "chasing rappers" in a post he shared on Instagram this Thursday.
Calling out Harden, who was very recently spotted attending Lil Baby's birthday party this month, Jackson suggested that the shooting guard isn't doing any favors for the Rockets since the hiring of Stephen Silas as head coach. "What type of dude is you? The Rockets finally get a young Black coach—a young Black coach get an opportunity—and you don't wanna show up to camp," he said. "You don't wanna play for him. How that look? And you wonder why every time a Black coach get a job, they put him in a bullshit situation."
He went on to specifically call out Harden's interest in hanging out with rappers instead of helping Silas look good during his early tenure with the team. "Look what you doing... What a real one would do is go play for that Black coach and make him look good and build with John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins—some real ones," he added. "But obviously you wanna chase rappers around."
Jackson's criticism of Harden, who has reportedly requested a trade from the Rockets, comes a week after Silas revealed that Harden didn't participate in a recent practice due to COVID-19 protocols. The team didn't clarify how he had broken these protocols, but around the same time there were videos of Harden attending a strip club circulating social media. "I want him here and I want him to be a big part of what we're doing," Silas said at the time.
Silas was named the head coach of the Rockets in October after two years as an assistant coach for the Dallas Mavericks.
