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Chicago Bulls v Houston Rockets

Source: Carmen Mandato / Getty

John Wall pulled no punches when asked about his 18-month stint with Houston Rockets. The 5x NBA All-Star recently appeared on Tidal League’s Run Your Race podcast, and he only needed three words to sum up his feelings about the organization and their former star James Harden: “Trash — beyond trash!”

After nine seasons and tons of injuries with the Washington Wizards, Wall was traded to H-Town in December 2020. He looked forward to being the new half of a dynamic backcourt alongside Harden. But the 2018 MVP had different plans. “I’m going there thinking James is gonna be there once I get traded,” Wall said, “but he already wants out.”

Wall added: “When I landed, I’m like, ‘What’s up? I’m about to land. Gotta go do my conference sh-t.’ [James is] like, ‘Well I’m on my way to Atlanta to go to Lil Baby’s birthday.’ The f-ck? He talking about, ‘You wanna get on the jet with me?’ B-tch, I just got traded here. I can’t f-ck up. I’ve got to be on good terms. I don’t know how the owner is, how the GM is. I don’t know nothing.”

Less than one month later, Harden was shipped off to the Brooklyn Nets in a blockbuster four-team deal. And Wall quickly found himself in an organization going in a direction he did not want. “My first year in Houston, we were tanking,” he alleged. “We lost 20 in a row. We were trying to lose on purpose—tanking.”

The Rockets ended the 2020-21 season in last place with a dismal 17-55 record. And after playing 40 games, Wall and the franchise agreed to sit him out for the remainder of the year. The Rockets then kept him off the court the following year in order to find a new home.

He may now be a member of the Los Angeles Clippers, but Wall claimed he even counseled some of the younger Rockets players about the situation. “I would tell them don’t get adjusted to this losing sh-t,” the 32-year-old said. “It’s a bad organization right now. They’ve got to fix some sh-t.”

See more of what John Wall had to say about that experience, the love he still gets in D.C., the effect his mother’s death has had on him, and more by watching the newest episode of Run Your Race below.

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