Chris Paul to Lakers: Why David Stern Deliberately Screwed the LA Lakers

We witnessed history last week in the NBA, and it wasn’t the good kind.

When NBA commissioner David Stern decided to veto a trade that would have sent Chris Paul to the LA Lakers; Luis Scola, Kevin Martin and Lamar Odom to the Hornets; and Pau Gasol to the Rockets he sent a clear message: I can do whatever I want and there is nothing you can do about it.

The trade would have left the Lakers with enough assets to land Magic big man Dwight Howard, forming a big three alongside Kobe Bryant that would trump the Miami Heat.

Yet Stern didn’t want that. He is out to screw over the LA Lakers and their owner, Dr. Jerry Buss. He is sick of people harping about conspiracy theories that the NBA always secretly places the Lakers in the finals and keeps them in the elite class of the league.  

Mike Lupica of the New York Daily News attempts to put this insane move into perspective:

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Somehow Chris Paul gets made an example of, as if somehow he’s the one who created this system. Stern’s first reaction is to step in and stop the Paul trade. But no matter how he spins it from here and how it plays out, it was an outrageously dumb decision by a smart guy. And a ridiculous abuse of power that went to his head a long time ago. For way too long, Stern has acted as if he is a star of his league simply because he is paid like one.

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This impacts the entire league. Probasketballtalk’s Rob Mahoney has created a chart to highlight how this outrageous decision affects virtually every team in the league. But nobody has been more affected than the Lakers.

They were essentially forced into trading the ultrasensitive Odom to Dallas for a less than favorable return, and are still trying to patch things up with Gasol. LA Times columnist Bill Plaschke talks about how damaging the veto has been on the Lakers:

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This was not competitive balance. This was chaos.This was not a Lakers team that had been reprimanded. This was a Lakers team that had been rolled.

Judging from the surreal scene at the Lakers' first practice Friday, the NBA's weak-kneed commissioner, David Stern, did more than just veto their trade for New Orleans star Chris Paul. He vetoed their strong sense of team, their legendary sense of calm, and even, briefly, Metta World Peace's sense of humor.

"I heard what happened, but I'm still lost on the situation," he said, shaking his head.

Despite sweating together for more than four hours at the Toyota Center in the first focused team activity in eight months, the Lakers all seemed lost, some of them literally.

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Stern is screwing with the chemistry of one of the signature franchises in the NBA because he listened to the small-market owners like Dan Gilbert that complained about another star getting what he wanted.

Well, this just in, the trade wouldn’t have been one-sided. The Lakers would have put all their eggs in the Andrew Bynum basket—incredibly risky considering his bad knees and immaturity. It’s no accident that the Lakers began winning championships with Gasol on board. A trade for Howard was far from a guarantee.

Stern didn’t need to do this, and letting a few annoying and whiny small-market owners cloud his judgment is absurd. This isn’t how professional sports are supposed to work, and now the Lakers are stuck with all of the repercussions with a new head coach in Mike Brown that is in over his head.

It’s not fair to anybody in the organization. Stern screwed the Lakers and will have this gaffe permanently etched on his legacy.