Daryl Morey said his mind had been made up for a month.
The Rockets general manager who came to Houston from Boston in 2006, whose blockbuster trade for James Harden in 2012 was one of the all-time best moves in any era and whose analytics-driven philosophies would change the way the game is played, returned from another playoff failure after they fell short against the Lakers inside the Orlando bubble and decided he was done. Nevermind that the news didn’t come out until 30 days later — one day after the emotionally-charged departure of former Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni that officially took place on the plane ride back from the bubble — or that the Rockets have been conducting a coaching search for the past month looking for D’Antoni’s replacement.
In an interview with The Athletic on Thursday night, Morey and Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta discussed the unorthodox way this massive move went down. For Morey’s part, he cited…
