The extent of James Harden's power he has long held with the Houston Rockets has come to light during his efforts to orchestrate a trade.

"James Harden has had the right to say who comes and goes in Houston for essentially the whole time he's [been] there," said Tim MacMahon on the Brian Windhorst podcast. "He wanted Dwight Howard and then he wanted Dwight Howard gone. Chris Paul, then Chris Paul gone. Russell Westbrook. Russell Westbrook gone. He wanted Kevin McHale out and McHale was gone. We can go on down the list.

"Like a lot of superstars, he had the right to say what the travel schedule was going to be. He determined the practice schedule. Got a couple days off, 'Well, James wants to go to Vegas, so you're not going to practice that day.'

"Coming back from the All-Star break, first practice is voluntary because 'James needs to go cool his heels a little bit in Vegas.'

"The first time the Rockets ever told James Harden no was 'No, we're not going to send you to Brooklyn when we don't like the potential trade.'"

Harden reported to training camp with the Rockets several days late after making a pair of much-publicized stops in Atlanta and Las Vegas.

"Their culture is whatever whim he had, that's what their culture was based on," added MacMahon." I was talking to a former Rockets staffer yesterday and he said quote, 'Yeah, he's going to act up, he's never heard 'no' before.'"