Intermittent clutch problem

Riding the 888 the other day the clutch suddenly got hard and shifting was a problem. I pulled over and the basket comes to a sudden stop as soon as the lever is pulled, like putting the brakes on. Immediate stop. I sat actuating it for a while with no change. I headed home and it was suddenly fine. I kept riding to see if the problem would reoccur and it does and then it goes away. When I made it home it was having the problem. Bike finds neutral fine if at a complete stop, otherwise the tranny is very hard to shift.
I pulled the cover and pressure plate off this morning and spun the actuation rod and it's very gritty and has hard spots when you spin it. I made the mistake of pulling on the lever though and now the rod is tight and won't budge, I'm going to have to wait for some pressure to bleed off before I can mess with it again. The rod is also slightly bent. When I bought it, several of the clutch plates and steels were frozen together which makes me wonder if it had gotten hot but the steels were not blue.
I have to head out and run some errands and can't dig further into it right now but wanted to ask opinions before going further. Anyone had a similar issue?
Thanks!