Chris Paul Lakers: Axed Trade Ushers in Incredibly Awkward Training Camp for LA

How does it feel to be Pau Gasol or Lamar Odom right now?

For about two hours or so on Thursday, Gasol thought he was Houston-bound and Odom was packing his bags for New Orleans in a blockbuster deal that was supposed to land Chris Paul with the Los Angeles Lakers.  

This infuriated the vast majority of owners in the league and reportedly pressured David Stern into vetoing the deal.

Just kidding guys!

Kevin Ding of the Orange County Register states what we all are thinking:

It’s an ugly situation that Kobe Bryant will have to fix in a hurry.  He’s the leader of this team and will be in charge of putting out the fire.

It’s a huge flame judging by the comments Odom made to the LA Times:

I guess that means I’m a Laker if the trade didn’t go through. I don’t know what to do for the Lakers. I’m even weirded out by the league doing what they did. I don’t know what to do. Oh, lord. I don’t know what I’m going to do. I’ll pray about it. 

Yeesh.

It’s a cruel thing to put anybody through.

Imagine you’re a respected member of a Fortune 500 Company for years, only to hear your bosses publicly shop you to a lesser company all the way on the other side of the country. You then find out through Twitter that you are no longer with the company you love, without as much as a phone call from the Fortune 500 Company. At the last second they change their mind and still expect you to show up to work on Monday with a big smile on your face.

It’s not fair to Odom, Gasol and all of the other players involved. The underlying storyline of the entire debacle is how unwanted players play out this season.

Kobe has one heck of a pep-talk to do tomorrow morning.