Yes, I've already said that I (choose to) believe this. The alternative is to believe that 1. Stephens refused to play and 2. CH chose to tell a direct lie rather than fudge the issue, which he certainly could have done.
Neither of those things fit for me.
I have no doubt he did do more...
Whatever is really going on, and that article is vague enough in places to leave several possibilities, CH says that, categorically, he did not refuse to play and is not that sort of player. That bit I do believe.