The NBA’s decision to reject a proposed trade involving All-Star guard Chris Paul set the stage for an awkward opening to training camps on Friday in New Orleans, Los Angeles and Houston.
The NBA-owned Hornets thought they had worked out a three-team deal to send Paul to Los Angeles in a deal that also would have sent Lamar Odom to New Orleans and four-time All-Star Pau Gasol to Houston.
The league, however, declined to approve the trade, meaning Paul was expected to report to Hornets camp, while Odom and Gasol were expected to show up when the Lakers opened practice under new head coach Mike Brown.
After deal fell through, Paul simply wrote, “WoW,” on his Twitter page.
Odom, too, took to Twitter to share his feelings: “When a team trades u and it doesn’t go down? Now what?”
The fallout from the trade that never was caused the NBA to deny reports that deal was nixed because a number of team owners complained about it to NBA commissioner David Stern.
“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,” league spokesman Mike Bass said.
Yahoo Sports reported that Stern killed the trade after several owners complained. Citing anonymous sources, Yahoo reported Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban was one of the most outspoken owners upset about the deal, done the same day as the end of the lockout, which was supposed to restore competitive balance in the league.
article courtesy of TheGrio.com
