The veto: 5 years later, the Chris Paul blockbuster trade that wasn't
Dec. 8, 2011, was supposed to be an all-good-news day for the NBA. The league and the players association ended a five-month lockout that had cost 480 regular-season games, and the two sides were meeting to ratify a new collective bargaining agreement.
In the afternoon, however, news broke that the then-New Orleans Hornets were on the verge of trading point guard Chris Paul to the Los Angeles Lakers in a massive three-way deal.
| Los Angeles Lakers | Houston Rockets | New Orleans Hornets |
|---|---|---|
| Chris Paul | Pau Gasol | Goran Dragic |
| Luis Scola | ||
| Kevin Martin | ||
| Lamar Odom | ||
| first-round pick (from HOU via NYK) |
It was the sort of trade that, while big, should have surprised absolutely no one. Paul, then 26, was a four-time All-Star in New Orleans. Yet he made it clear a year earlier that he wanted out, preferably to relocate to either L.A. or New York. He was due to be a free agent in the summer of 2012, and the Hornets knew they had a small window in which to operate with the shortened season.
The Lakers were still, in essence, a dynasty. Only 18 months removed from their last NBA championship, Kobe Bryant had yet to suffer the gauntlet of injuries that marred his final three seasons. The trade was supposed to be a blockbuster reset of sorts for the legendary franchise, not unlike their signing of Shaquille O'Neal in 1996. Paul uniting with Bryant would not only form a backcourt for the ages, it would set up the younger CP3 as Kobe's heir to the Laker throne.
But by the night of Dec. 8, something was wrong. Despite the two teams officially agreeing on the deal, word leaked out that then-NBA commissioner David Stern was nixing the trade due to "basketball reasons."
The fallout was swift, and it wasn't a good look for the league.
What complicated matters is that the Hornets were owned by the league. Forced to buy the team from financially challenged former owner George Shinn in 2010, it wouldn't be until 2012 that the NBA was able to sell the team back to local hands in Saints owner Tom Benson.
Related: Stern on scrapped 2011 Paul trade: 'There was nothing to void'
Views vary on Stern's decision. Was it made from the standpoint of the NBA commissioner, or the caretaker of a single franchise? One thing is certain: So-called "superteams" had been irking owners since LeBron James and Chris Bosh joined forces with Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat a year earlier, and the idea of a West Coast version didn't sit well anywhere except in the Lakers' front office.
It was in that vein that Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert - the man who had been jilted by the James move - sent an email to Stern on Dec. 8 urging him to veto the trade, saying, "It would be a travesty."
The killing of the deal was put into perspective best by Paul that night.
WoW
— Chris Paul (@CP3) December 9, 2011
Eight days later, the Hornets found a trade that worked - with the Lakers' Staples Center co-tenant, the Clippers. New Orleans received Al-Farouq Aminu, Eric Gordon, Chris Kaman, and a first-round pick (which became Austin Rivers, who now plays for the Clippers) in return for Paul.
Fans and analysts could spend months on alternate-reality theories. One wonders, for instance, if Goran Dragic (the best player New Orleans could have received in either trade) would have been a better fit for them.
The Hornets bottomed out and drafted Anthony Davis No. 1 overall the following spring (and the usual NBA conspiracy theories abound about how they won the lottery).
Still, the entire league would have been affected one way or another if the original deal had gone through. With Paul on the Lakers, L.A. wouldn't have gone after Steve Nash in 2012. If Nash chose to return to Canada to play for the Toronto Raptors, the Raps never would have acquired Kyle Lowry. And with a still relatively young Gasol in Houston in 2012, would the Rockets have gone after James Harden? The theories can go on forever, but they're irrelevant now.
One thing is clear five years later, however. The Clippers, and not the Lakers, landing Paul was the impetus for the two franchises switching profiles in the L.A. market. For decades, the Clippers lived in the Lakers' shadow, toiling under a morally compromised owner as the purple and gold channeled Hollywood.
While there's no reason to believe a resurgence of Laker greatness wouldn't re-establish the old order, for the moment, the Clippers are the higher standard.
Now, if they could just get past the second round of the playoffs.