The NBA Blocks Chris Paul To The Lakers & Makes A Huge Mess

In the words of the man himself (Chris Paul), “Wow.” What in the locked-out world just happened? The afternoon created as much conversation as we’ve seen around a move since “The Decision” and yet just a few short hours later, it was over and nothing had happened. In case you’ve been out of it for the past 16 or so hours, a huge trade was agreed upon between the Lakers, Hornets and Rockets where the Lakers ended up with CP, the Rockets with Pau Gasol and New Orleans would’ve gotten Lamar Odom, Luis Scola, Kevin Martin, Goran Dragic, and a 2012 first-round pick that came from the Knicks. What ultimately killed it? Adrian Wojnarowski reported that David Stern wasn’t going to let Paul dictate where he wanted to go. Now Paul is probably planning to sock Stern in the face the next time he sees him. The point guard is fuming and according to Chris Broussard, planning on filing some form of legal action against him. So what happened? NBA spokesman Mike Bass could only say this: “It’s not true that the owners killed the deal, the deal was never discussed at the Board of Governors meeting and the league office declined to make the trade for basketball reasons.” Basketball reasons. What a pathetic excuse. The owners dropped the ball on this one big time by pressuring the league into putting a stop to this. The casual public has called into question the ethics of this league before. Well, what are they going to say now? This is the type of disgusting behavior we see in our fantasy leagues all the time. No! That’s an unfair trade. Commissioner, we have to vote against that! His team is too good. Absolutely pathetic. Everyone in this situation should be heated. Laker fans for the fact that Stern and the rest stole your night, Rocket fans for having their shot at Nene (with what would’ve been more cap space) taken away, and even Hornets fans who probably can’t expect to ever get this much talent for CP again. In fact, the owners might’ve just inadvertently screwed them over even worse. Paul may end up just leaving for nothing. The precedent this sets is absolutely horrid, and the league better find an owner for the Hornets soon or else there are going to be even more problems … As for the Lakers, now s— is really ready to hit the fan. Lamar Odom seemed like he was in a trance yesterday answering questions, and really doesn’t have a clue how he’ll respond. Odom is a sensitive cat, and has gone through a lot of emotional turmoil in his life. But if anyone thinks he’ll just brush this whole situation off like it never happened is dreaming. And Pau Gasol? We don’t even need to speak on that … Before the stupidity of the league stepped in, and we actually thought we had a clean resolution to this mess in New Orleans, the best joke we heard came from Alex Groberman on Twitter: On the bright side, now New Orleans can use Khloe to shield itself from future hurricanes … CP isn’t the only player ready to call the soldiers and start marching on people. Frank Isola reports that Chauncey Billups, apparently pissed off about the recent trade/amnesty rumors, has returned home to Denver… even with the start of training camp tomorrow. This will not end well either … One thing that did make us happy yesterday was a release from the NBA saying the rip-through move will no longer by rewarded so heavily this season … One of the best players on St. John’s, sophomore guard Nurideen Lindsey, has decided to transfer, saying “I came to St. Johns for a couple of reasons. One was to be close to my mom, whose health has been up and down due to some past experiences. The second was to play for Coach Lav. In both instances it has not worked out how I envisioned. I think Coach Lav is an amazing coach, and person. He could have taught me so much.” This is a pretty big blow for a squad that was coming around this year … Harvard is really good this year. They just aren’t quite UConn, losing 67-53 as Jeremy Lamb went for 18 points and seven rebounds … And did Stephen A. Smith drop a racial slur concerning LeBron on live television yesterday? … We’re out like the CP era in L.A.

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