Chris Paul Trade: Petition for CP3 Deal Will Do Little to Sway NBA's Verdict
Apparently, Chris Paul is not going to be on the Lakers. Jesse Feldman, who refers to himself as a "Professional Basketball Fan," is not happy that the NBA has vetoed the trade that was reported by Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports on Thursday.
Feldman penned a letter to the NBA in hopes of getting 10,000 signatures in a petition to get the NBA to reverse the initial rejection, or at least to be more specific with their reasons for vetoing the trade.
While this letter does include blunt wording, it's professionally done. Professional or not, it's not going to matter.
First of all, fans are always going to be disappointed when something happens to prevent their team from improving. While he doesn't explicitly state it, I am assuming that Feldman is a fan of the Lakers. At the very least, I am assuming that he's a fan of a big market team.
But even if that's wrong, there's nothing about this letter that's going to sway the NBA. Frankly, nothing should happen because of this letter.
Even if Feldman gets all of the desired signatures, 10,000 still makes up a minuscule percentage of NBA fans. That wouldn't be enough fans to sell out one NBA arena.
So no, it's nowhere near enough of a united voice for the league to do anything. The NBA was going to upset someone with this move. As we saw from Dan Gilbert's letter posted by Tom Reed of the Cleveland Plain-Dealer, people were quite upset that the trade was initially accepted.
Think about this from the NBA's perspective. If this trade was allowed, odds are pretty good that we would be sitting here, discussing a letter from a fan with the complete opposite view of Feldman.
Ultimately, that's the problem. That's why the NBA is not going to do anything. There are simply too many fans out there to get that consistent of a voice.
Now, Feldman does threaten a boycott of some sorts.
""A lot of your fans are dedicated; a lot of your fans are very smart. If you wish to continue with one the most egregious abuses of power in the history of American sports, we promise that we will organize one of the biggest fan-organized coups in the history of sports. You are opening Pandora’s Box."
"
That sounds good. If fans really are disappointed with a sport, the best thing they can do to show that is to not go to the games or watch on television.
Unfortunately, when you consider how many fans there are, that's just not realistic. Even if Feldman does organize a strong boycott, there will always be fans to fill their place.
Ultimately, the NBA knows this. That's why letters like this from a fan just aren't going to be acted on. There are too many fans to have one voice. Without having one, unified voice, the league knows that it will be fine.
Simply, they won't do anything on Feldman's letter because there isn't enough of a pressing reason to. Without that, the demands of fans will continue to fall on deaf ears.
