Chris Paul Trade Rumors: NBA Was Wrong to Kill the Los Angeles Lakers Deal

Chris Paul won't be headed to the Los Angeles Lakers anytime soon after David Stern nixed yesterday's deal that made him a member of the Lakers for only a couple of hours.

Say what you want about the trade. Fair or not fair, the problem with the entire situation is that the deal shouldn't have been made in the first place. But once it's made, it was dead wrong for Stern to nix it.

If he had planned on vetoing the trade, it should have been done before it was announced, not hours after.

The problem with the whole situation in the first place is that the NBA -owned Hornets dealing Paul to a large-market team because their hand was forced. There's no way Stern can keep a straight face when talking to smaller-market teams about competitive balance.

Isn't that a big reason that we aren't playing basketball now and had to go through a five-month lockout?

Again, the problem isn't necessarily the trade, but the NBA is the de facto owner of the New Orleans franchise and they, of all people, allowed this to happen. They let the player force their hand, and that wasn't supposed to happen any more.

If said player will only sign an extension with said team, then unfortunately that needs to happen in the offseason. Allowing the player to call the shots forces small-market franchises to take the offer on the table in most cases and you know what that leads to.

Stern was at the lead of that campaign to restore competitive balance to the NBA.

Now, how can he be taken seriously by anyone?

But once a deal is announced, it's done. He looks far worse now than he did before.

How are all of the traded players expected to report to their former but now current teams? There are definitely going to be some disgruntled employees.

Look at the spot he put Paul and the Lakers, much less Lakers fans.

Stern hasn't just made himself look bad, but the league as well.

You know what they say: a deal is a deal.

Apparently, everywhere but the NBA.