Morey: Other teams planted stories about Rockets' chemistry issues

To an outsider, it seemed like a pretty miserable season to be a Houston Rocket.

On top of seeing their on-court product fall off a cliff after last season's improbable run to the Western Conference finals, the Rockets (perhaps not coincidentally) haven't much seemed to enjoy each other's company.

Their coach got fired 11 games into the season; they had more players-only meetings than one cares to count; there have been innumerable reports of friction between the team's two biggest stars (one of whom is allegedly on his way out of town); and after the shot that clinched arguably their biggest win of the season, their bench looked more put-out than excited.

With the season now mercifully over, Rockets general manager Daryl Morey spoke to reporters at the Toyota Center on Friday, and, as he's done all season, tried to dispel any notion that there's anything rotten in Houston. All that bad publicity? Planted by the competition, apparently.

"It's smart for other teams to paint us in a negative light," Morey said, according to Brian T. Smith of the Houston Chronicle.

"All the articles you see out there are all other teams trying to, very smartly, paint our situation as negative."

Morey specifically tried to downplay the team's purported chemistry issues, and the notion that players don't like playing with James Harden.

"James Harden, I don't know who wouldn't want to play with him," Morey said. "He's a top-five player in the league."

Morey also chafed at what he seems to feel is a media bias against his club.

"There are teams swept out of the playoffs and we're not hearing about how they have a problem," he said, after noting that no one wrote positive stories about the Rockets' chemistry when things were going well last year.

"The reality is it's the same group of guys. They had good chemistry. We just didn't play as well."