Kevin McHale takes leave of absence from Houston Rockets to deal with personal matter – NBA News
The Houston Rockets have announced that their head coach, Kevin McHale, has taken a leave of absence from the team on Saturday to deal with a personal matter, and there is no timeline yet for his return. The Rockets also announced
that team assistant coach Kelvin Sampson will take over as interim Head Coach till the time McHale returns.
Rockets General Manager, Daryl Morey, while announcing the decision, did not go into the specifics regarding the personal issue McHale is going through, but did express his concern for the coach and his family.
"Kevin is a devoted family man who is needed back home in Minnesota at the moment. The Rockets organization will keep Kevin and his family in our thoughts and prayers during this difficult time,” said Morey.
Sampson, the in charge Head Coach, said he had a talk with the players during a film session on Saturday afternoon, and he expects his players to rise up to the occasion and step up to the challenge.
"Oftentimes in life we have things happen to us, and we have to make decisions on how we're going to react to them. This is one of those times. We lost our leader. I think we can use this as a catalyst to bring us together and
fight for him,” said Sampson.
Sampson now has the difficult task of coaching the Houston Rockets team, which has performed quite well over the first two weeks of the season owing largely to the fact that they acquired reigning 6th man of the year
James Harden in a last minute trade with the Oklahoma City Thunder. Although the Rockets are not one of the best teams in the league despite the trade for Harden, Sampson believes that the pressure on the team is not as much as many other teams because the
Rockets are not a top contender in the league, which will make matters for him much more easier and help him take over his new position with less pressure.
"I don't think it's that challenging. I think it would be a lot more challenging if we were the No. 1 ranked team in the league,” added Sampson.
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