Eric Gordon Says Los Angeles Clippers Management Lied About Chris Paul Trade

Shooting guard Eric Gordon was traded to the New Orleans Hornets along with Chris Kaman and Al-Farouq Aminu in a deal that brought point guard Chris Paul to the Los Angeles Clippers a few weeks ago. Now Gordon is saying Clippers management lied to him.

According to Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports, Gordon and the rest of the Clippers were told by management that they wouldn't be traded after the initial deal for Paul fell through. To say that Gordon feels deceived would certainly be an understatement:

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All you do is take the man’s word and take that he said that no one is going to go anywhere. … To completely lie like that is something unprofessional.

They literally told me as an organization that they wanted to keep me, and [the trade still] went down?

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While Clippers general manager Neil Olshey admitted that a meeting took place in which he and head coach Vinny Del Negro told the players they wouldn't be moving, it occurred when the Paul deal appeared to be dead. They received a call back from the Hornets, however, and things changed. Olshey said:

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I’m not deceptive enough to look players in the eye and tell them something that is not true. And I can tell you from an ownership level, the president of our company, myself, we made a corporate decision Monday morning that when the deal didn’t go through on Sunday night we would no longer pursue the trade. And that’s when we notified our players, to get the elephant out of the room during our abbreviated training camp (via Yahoo! Sports).

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Both sides make valid points, but I would have to sympathize more with Olshey in this instance. While I understand that Gordon was upset about being uprooted and traded, especially after being told he wouldn't be, Olshey was put in a very tough spot.

In his mind it must have been very clear that the Paul deal was off the table and that it wasn't going to happen. At that point he thought it best to put his players' minds at ease. It may look like a bad move now, but at the time he did the right thing based on what he knew.

The Hornets came to him with a better deal, so he was obligated to listen. It isn't as if he could have told the Hornets that he didn't want Paul anymore because he told his players they wouldn't be traded. That would have been a moronic move, and it would have cost the Clippers the chance to get one of the best players in the game.

Olshey ultimately did what was best for the team, and while he inadvertently had to step on some toes to do it, he got the deal done. If Olshey could do it all over again, I'm sure he wouldn't have had the meeting, but he couldn't foresee what would happen with the Paul trade.

As for Gordon, he seems to be happy with the Hornets, so I think it's about time he moves on. If he continues to complain it will look like little more than sour grapes at this point. Everything seemingly worked out for the best in the end, so Gordon needs to let it go.