Thursday evening a blockbuster three team trade in the NBA was announced that would send disgruntled Hornets guard Chris Paul to the Los Angeles Lakers. In turn the Lakers would send Pau Gasol to the Houston Rockets while the Hornets would get Kevin Martin, Lamar Odom and Luis Scola from the Rockets and Lakers respectively.
A good trade for a Hornets team that is set to lose Chris Paul at the end of the season anyways. This gives the Hornets a chance to actually have a suitable roster after Chris Paul hits the road.
The NBA however showed their true colors just hours after the trade was announced when commissioner David Stern killed the deal amid pressure from NBA owners.
Now it’s a fact that the league currently owns the Hornets and have owned them for about the past nine months. The rest of the NBA owners, who in part each own a share of the Hornets didn’t want to see Chris Paul get his way (a one way ticket out of New Orleans) and they didn’t want to have the Lakers get their way even though you can make some good arguments that this trade hurt the Lakers more than it actually helped them.
One of the NBA owners that was very outspoken about the trade was Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert.
We all became familiar with Gilbert when former Cavs star LeBron James abruptly left the team during free agency to join the Miami Heat. In turn Gilbert wrote a very passionate letter to the fans of Cleveland assuring them that the Cavs would essentially be better than ever without LeBron.
Thursday, Gilbert wrote another email, this time to commissioner David Stern voicing his displeasure of the CP3 deal to the Lakers.
Here is that email…
Commissioner,
It would be a travesty to allow the Lakers to acquire Chris Paul in the apparent trade being discussed.
This trade should go to a vote of the 29 owners of the Hornets.
Over the next three seasons this deal would save the Lakers approximately $20 million in salaries and approximately $21 million in luxury taxes. That $21 million goes to non-taxpaying teams and to fund revenue sharing.
I cannot remember ever seeing a trade where a team got by far the best player in the trade and saved over $40 million in the process. And it doesn’t appear that they would give up any draft picks, which might allow to later make a trade for Dwight Howard. (They would also get a large trade exception that would help them improve their team and/or eventually trade for Howard.) When the Lakers got Pau Gasol (at the time considered an extremely lopsided trade) they took on tens of millions in additional salary and luxury tax and they gave up a number of prospects (one in Marc Gasol who may become a max-salary player).
I just don’t see how we can allow this trade to happen.
I know the vast majority of owners feel the same way that I do.
When will we just change the name of 25 of the 30 teams to the Washington Generals?
Please advise….
Dan G.
The problem however comes when you look beyond this lockout shortened season and the potential state that the league owned Hornets are going to be in. Essentially what this deal confirmed to the rest of the basketball world, and sadly enough to the fans of the Hornets is there is absolutely no hope for their team beyond this year. It also proved that if there’s enough pressure generated from the rest of the owners the commissioner’s office will buckle.
It seems clear that the NBA has ruined any change of the Hornets actually being successful beyond this season and have continued to make the franchise even more unappealing to potential new ownership groups.
General managers from around the league have to be wondering whether or not any deals they make going forward will be vetoed by the league if a majority of the owners happen not to like the deal. Hornets general manager Dell Demps also has to be wondering how much power he actually has within the organization?
The NBA has turned into nothing but a fantasy league of whiny, bitchy owners that now know if enough noise is made by them they can get whatever they want.
Fans also have to be wondering what exactly did the NBA lockout accomplish?
The only thing you ever hear about as a result of the lockout is revenue sharing. However other important issues such as a potential franchise tag in the NBA was overlooked. So fans and the league can expect to see many of the same problems such as players choosing what team they want to play for will continue to happen. This also means small market teams like New Orleans, Sacramento, Oklahoma City and so on will have for the most part no shot in keeping their star players in a star player driven league.
The NBA had no business ending the lockout when they did because it’s clear that real pressing issues are still very much a problem for the league. Having any type of season this year is simply David Stern and the rest of the league burying their heads in the sand and avoiding the problems at hand.
Ref: Yahoo! Sports, TheBigLead, ESPN (image)
