Yes I’m talking about the proposed 3-team deal between the Los Angeles Lakers, New Orleans Hornets and the Houston Rockets that would have sent Chris Paul to the Lakers.
The entire lockout was about owners being fed up with players absorbing (in some cases) millions and millions of dollars for sitting on the bench to ride out the rest of their overpaid contract. The owners were losing money and having to still pay out HUGE contracts. This also included payouts to players that are either retired, injury crippled, or in some cases just plain old and fat(Eddy Curry).
Attendance has been down because some people just cant afford to spend $100 on parking, food and drinks and then at least 1 ticket.
But then the deal that sparked all the controversy (between the Lakers, Hornets and Rockets) was originally approved by commissioner David Stern Thursday only to kill it just hours later because the rest of the leagues owners realized this deal is what they’ve fought against for the past year.
A large majority of owners were irate with the belief that the 5 month lockout had happened largely to stop big-market teams such as Los Angeles, Miami, New York, New Jersey/Brooklyn from leveraging small-market teams(New Orleans Hornets,etc) for star players especially when they’re contract is in the last year.
Ref: Getty (image)