Chris Paul Lakers: League Reportedly Vetos Blockbuster Deal

The Chris Paul trade saga could turn into a feature film at this point.

It was widely reported that the LA Lakers had acquired Chris Paul in a deal that sent Lamar Odom to the New Orleans Hornets and Pau Gasol to the Houston Rockets. Multiple other players were involved as well.

Not so fast, my friend.

The NBA has nixed the deal according to “The Sports Guy” Bill Simmons of ESPN.com

Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports is reporting that the other owners around the league weren’t exactly pleased with today’s transaction.

Currently the Hornets are owned by the NBA. The rest of the league—rightfully—believes this trade is a complete rip-off in the same way the Lakers stole Gasol from the Memphis Grizzles a few years ago.

CNBC sports reporter Darren Rovell brings up a good point as well.

The league essentially has a “For Sale” sign up in front of the franchise. Gutting the team right now would be the equivalent of a realtor demolishing the master bedroom right before showing off the house to a potential buyer.

This isn’t good for the league. We just endured a lengthy lockout that robbed us of 16 games partially because of what the Heat did. Pairing up CP3 with Kobe Bryant and potentially Dwight Howard is simply not fair to teams like the Sacramento Kings and Golden State Warriors out west.

After a day that started with Paul as a Hornet, then he was a Laker for a few hours, then back on the Hornets, has left Paul speechless.