Chris Paul makes major statement on failed Lakers trade after NBA retirement originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Chris Paul was close to joining the Los Angeles Lakers in the prime of his NBA career.
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In 2011, the former New Orleans Hornets (now known as the New Orleans Pelicans) guard was included in a three-team deal that would have paired him with Kobe Bryant in Los Angeles.
Unfortunately, David Stern, the NBA’s commissioner at the time, vetoed the trade because he didn’t think the trade would benefit New Orleans. Four days after Paul announced his retirement from the NBA, he made an intriguing statement about his failed Lakers trade.
“Once the lockout ended and we went back to our teams, I got traded to the Lakers,” Paul said on the Tylil Show Wednesday. “At the time, my team was owned by the NBA. The owner of my team ran out of money. So the NBA took over my team. The NBA was making decisions for my team.”
“Next thing you know, the league receded it. I was excited. They said be ready to play the whole year back here, and then it was quiet.”
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“What happened was a few of the owners of the other teams said we just came out of a lockout and did a new CBA, they said we was all about competitive balance.”
One could argue that it would have been unfair to place Paul and Bryant on the same team. Paul was a mesmerizing pick-and-roll distributor and yo-yo ball handler who had already mastered the art of manipulating defenders.
Bryant was an elite scorer who wasn’t afraid to take the big shots late in games and put the Lakers on his back.
Multiple championships could have been in the cards for the Lakers in the early to mid 2010s if Stern hadn’t vetoed the trade. However, it was probably the best decision for the league at the time, making it foolish to give Stern a hard time for shitting the trade down.
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Paul went on to compete with the Los Angeles Clippers (twice), the Houston Rockets, Oklahoma City Thunder, Phoenix Suns, Golden State Warriors, and San Antonio Spurs before officially retiring from the big leagues.
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