NBA Messes Up the Association, New Orleans in Unfathomable Ways
We all know the story. The Los Angeles Lakers attempted to initiate a three-team trade that would bring New Orleans Hornets' All-Star Chris Paul to Hollywood to team up with Kobe Bryant.
Unfortunately, the NBA halted the deal for reasons that remain unclear.
People may think that the Lakers got screwed out of a good deal, but it's really the Hornets who got shorted the most. And when I say they got shorted, I mean they got dragged down a path that they do not want to take a hike on.
The deal was set up quite nicely for the Hornets, so nicely in fact that it was arguable whether or not the Lakers or Hornets got the better end. In fact, it is my opinion that the Hornets had made a deal that would put them into contention easily.
Paul was the stud of the deal, but the Hornets were to receive Kevin Martin (a cinch to score 20 points a game), Luis Scola (one of the most underrated big men in the league who can put up 18 and 10), and Lamar Odom (a matchup nightmare who can score and defend and do everything asked of him).
They were also set to receive a very serviceable point guard in Goran Dragic and were additionally receiving a first-round pick from Houston.
Think about that: three players who are very near to being All-Star caliber, a solid point guard and a first round pick. That's a dream haul for most teams trading away a disgruntled star.
Yet it never happened.
In a classic case of "wrong place, wrong time," Chris Paul was seeking a blockbuster trade immediately following a collective bargaining spat, from a team that is under the ownership of the very league it resides in. And for Paul, that meant the league would do anything in its power to keep the Hornets' biggest draw in New Orleans.
It doesn't seem to make much sense. David Stern says that the deal was vetoed because it "wasn't in the best interest of the league," but it would take some seriously short sighted people to decide that this trade wouldn't have been beneficial for all parties involved.
Yes, Paul would have teamed up with Kobe in L.A. and formed a star-studded backcourt that could have included Dwight Howard. And yes, the Hornets would be losing their biggest crowd-pleaser.
But the NBA completely forgot one thing, if Paul stays in New Orleans, it really, really, really hurts the Hornets for the long term. Paul will not continue to play for the team once his contract is up at the end of the season. That much is clear, and the Hornets formulated a perfect trade to ship their star out of town before they were faced with letting him go for nothing.
But since the NBA decided that Paul going to the Lakers would not be in the best interests of the league, the Hornets were placed in an awful position. Now, when he leaves, they will get nothing in return and will return to the cellar of the NBA.
You can't tell me the NBA thought the Hornets would be better with Paul. They're not. The haul of players they would have received via the trade was excellent, and the first-round pick could even end up being a player better than Paul.
Financially, it ensures the Hornets will have a drawing card for this next season, but somewhere down the road this team is really going to be in trouble if it can't bring good players to New Orleans.
The NBA messed up. Everything is so unclear and it smells of money and corruption, but there's one way everything could be solved, allow the trade to go through, and forget this ever happened.
