Who hasn't wanted to be friends with a pro basketball player? I (Clara) really think if a W/NBA player got to know me, they'd like me. I'm nice, I would try hard to be funny, but also chill, and it seems like that effort would be rewarded with a Very Cool Person as a friend. Of course this is just fantasy. A thought experiment. However. I must admit the friendship between Daryl Morey and James Harden kinda gave me, and perhaps every other Regular, hope.
Because in the 20teens James Harden was very cool, he hung out with rappers and won MVP awards, and Daryl Morey was a nerd, he liked musicals and math, and yes, yes won an executive of the year award fine, but guess what? They were friends! That should give us hope! Now, I'm not saying I'm a nerd, and I never will, and I want it on the record that I don't like musicals or math, but still! The unusual pairing made it seem like, "hey, if Morey can do it, anyone can do it."
The executive and the player had a true friendship-- a flow of respect and admiration. Leading the Rockets together, they broke records, ushered in the Three Point Revolution and changed the game of basketball. They also nearly beat the Warriors in the 2018 Western Conference Finals!
Which, let me just lower my voice to tell you, was as far as the Harden-Morey pairing ever got.
They teamed up again in Philly, where they didn't get to the conference finals and that is where their unlikely friendship deteriorated into a side of beef heavy enough for Rocky to punch (that one's for you, Philadelphia) and for the rest of us to watch the dream of befriending a pro slip further into dreamland.
This is the beef history of James Harden and Daryl Morey. Please enjoy