The beer is looking to one up at his MVP runner-up season and with a new superstar partner by his side. Mission tonight for James Hardin in the Rockets remain unbeaten in the preseason. Momentum guys, I'm still on it. I'm not going to hurt him too. TNT NBA tip off, presented by Auto Trader Good to have you with us. TGI, the final night of the preseason, I'm Matt Weiner with these clowns on a double header Friday night. He'll right here a couple of halls here. So for here both of us. Kevin McCale, you probably are no army to clown. You probably know what we're talking about already. Lakers clippers later on first up, it's the Spurs and Rockets. And in Houston, this week, Kevin became the topic of conversation thanks to a recent critique of James Hardin. You had James Hardin with the ball, fantastic with the ball, great passes. Guys got phenomenal vision. Talk about vision. James can see all the passes through everything. But James is not a leader. He tried me in a leader last year, tried to do that stuff. I think Chris Paul is going to help him just kind of get back into just being able to hoop and play and stuff like that. But on every team, you have to have a voice. On every team, you have to have somebody that when they say something, people listen. You know, James, like, my, like, James tells you, Chuck, you got to play better. Do you listen to him? Like, you got to be kidding me. I live through it. Believe me, everybody in the locker room did this. Every time he'd manage defense, everybody would go through the head and all like, yeah. You got to be kidding me. He's a clown, honestly. You know, I do anything and everything he asked me to do, I'll try to lead this team. I just saw stuff that fit here in Houston. You know, but just to go all in and just, you know, down to him, my name, when, you know, honestly, he's never taught me anything, you know, to be a leader. But I've done a great job, you know, I think in, you know, the organization, my, my coaches, you can ask any of those guys, you know, how, how I've worked extremely hard every single day to, to better, you know, obviously be a basketball player, but be a leader as well. Different types of leaders as well. So to go and air and downplay my name like that, it just shows his character. And I use it and go back and forth on social media with anybody or, you know, with interviews, but, you know, some stand up for myself and, you know, there it is. There it is indeed. The criticism and the response from James Harden and at the risk of extending this out even further, your rebuttal. Go ahead and extend it out further. And you know, you're calling me names is not going to change my opinion as to what I saw when I was there. It's hard to have a lot of credibility. You don't play good defense. It's hard to say, let's get stopped when people are looking at you saying, please stay in front of somebody. And my point was that he's a hell of a basketball player. He really is. I mean, into James credit, I will say this. He organizes guys in this summer. He does a lot of stuff. He does a lot of those things. What I was talking more about leadership is, Isaiah and I, you know, I talked about this. It's a tie game at half, okay? It's a playoff game or it's a, you're playing another team that's tough and rumble and they're going to get after you. And I was sudden, it was four minutes ago in the third, you're down nine. They're getting every loose ball. They're getting every rebound. They're doing this. It's not about skill at that point. It's about will. It's like, I got to impose my will on you. So what, you know, James at that point gets a little bit. He, that's not his personality. Chris Paul internal getting your face go nose and nose with you. So, say, let's go. And I think that's what you need. Drainmond Green does a great job whenever you need a spark. He's out there going, John with somebody and I said, you know how it is. It's kind of the arrow we came from. And that's what I'm saying. James is a hell of a basketball player. Chris Paul will have that leadership at those times where he gets a little bit introverted, a little bit quiet. And he actually, you saw the game in the spurs. I mean, he gets to the point where he's just, he's just passive. And Chris Paul is not like that. Chris Paul is like, we were kind of more, if things go bad, let's go get him. There are different types of leadership styles. And I think that's what you refer into. And it's no knock on James, but Chris Paul is the president of the players association. So he has different type of voice, different type of leadership. And it's not that James isn't a great leader. He's not a Chris Paul kind of leader. There are different kind of leaders. And on our team, on your team, you know, there are different kind of, you know, ML car probably was a leader on your team. He was a leader of, let's go punch him into mouth. I promise you that. Yeah, you gotta have different ways of communicating different ways of being. And I look at what you said, you know, is a critique on his game. And also, you know, in those moments where you need that person to step up. As you said, that's not his personality. That's not a knock on him, but that's just not his personality. Maybe Chris Paul's personality, but it's not James. That doesn't mean that they're bad players or they're bad people. Now you, Bozo, and I'm homey. Yeah, we're all wrong. That just had a go. Great. We think of great players. And I'm talking about elite players all time, great players. Does the package require leadership with ability? Well, I think sometimes we expect that you expect an Isaiah Thomas, the best player on the pistons. And he's also the best leader. He's the voice. He's that guy. But it doesn't always translate that way. We talked about Dre Munger. He is the leader of the Golden State Warriors, Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, Clay Thompson. Maybe you're a better basketball player. And the sexier roles, if you will. But Dre Munger is that voice, is that leader. So it doesn't always translate. I think it's, it helps when your best player also sets the tone in terms of vocally, but also on the court. But it doesn't necessarily always the case. But you know, you know, just picking up the last point on this is that, you know, you see Dre Munger, Green Goes, No, is knows gets into it. Steph Curry is going, knows, knows those guys. Like you need that guy to be that igniter on your team. And just when things are going bad, hey, you know what, I'm going to hit your first. I'm going to hit your last. I'm going to slap the ball on your hand. I'm just going to change the rhythm of this game up because we're not playing well right now. And that's, that's more what I was referring to. That's Chris Paul's style. A lot more than this James. Yeah, and, and you know, you were his coach. And you know, when you, when you have a coach such as yourself, you know, there's critique and criticism that goes along with that to help you get better as a player. And, and part of being his coach was to identify his strengths and his weaknesses. Not necessarily to say, you're, you're a bad person because you're not this, but it's like, okay, I need this from you. And James, you can't give me that. So I'm an actually Patrick Beverly. I'm not saying that. So that, that, that makes the team better. And too many times guys take criticism as negativity, but personal, or personal, but, but in order to get better and in order to grow, you have to be critiqued and criticism comes with what we do because that, that's what makes you better. Yeah. You know, you made him better as a basketball player. He may not agree with that. But, you know, he had some good years up under you. No question. He's, he's legitimate in play. He's been runner up of MVP twice where he easily could have won it either year. Yeah. I mean, the kick, the kick and play basketball. I'm just saying that, you know, that's not his personality. By the way, I was really hoping you'd come out here with the Red Nose. I just, really my only disappointment from this conversation tonight is you didn't go with the giant Red Nose. He does have enormous feet. So you got that part. I got that part. By the way, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. And from Houston, tells us Chris, wow tonight for the Houston Rockets. Spurs and rockets coming up. We'll see you at the half Kevin Harlan TV's bread bearing, Kristen Letelo have the call from Texas.