National Basketball Association

Rashad McCants alludes to Kevin McHale blackballing him from the NBA

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

Sports Illustrated, Dan Gartland/Sports Illustrated

Former NBA guard Rashad McCants told the Charlotte Observer last week that he believes he's been “blackballed” by the NBA, though he didn't indicate who he felt was responsible. In an interview Thursday on SI Now, McCants came this close to identifying the culprit.

“I've been told, numerous conversations and numerous sources, that I've been blackballed,” McCants told the Observer. “And it's just the way the league is sometimes. When one person who is a higher-up, Hall of Famer, says don't touch him, they won't. And that's just how it is.”

McCants, a first-round pick, was traded from the Timberwolves to the Kings mid-way through his fourth season and was not re-signed by Sacramento when his contract expired that summer. He failed to catch on after a couple of stints in the D-League and hasn't played professionally since 2015 in the Dominican Republic.

“When you average 15 points a game in your third year, 10 points a game for your career, and you can't get a job—and you've never been in trouble, never gotten in any fights—there's something fishy there,” McCants said Thursday on SI Now.

Pressed to identify the Hall of Famer in question, McCants tiptoed right up the edge.

“If you look at the pieces, there's only a couple of them,” McCants said. “If you do your due diligence, one of them just happened to coach me. Wink, wink.”

It doesn't take much investigating to figure out McCants only played for one Hall of Fame coach: Kevin McHale.

McHale was the GM who drafted McCants with the 14th pick in 2005. He left the team in 2009 and later became the head coach of the Rockets. He was also reported to be a candidate for the Magic president job before Orlando hired Jeff Weltman.