The NBA took some heat for the extended and unnecessary lockout. It’s time for damage control. So the very first thing David Stern did, before the ink was even try on the new CBA was to kill the Chris Paul to L.A. trade. Winning the new CBA and getting 3 billion dollars back from the players was only the beginning apparently. David Stern is officially mad with power, he’s jumped the shark, he’s turned the NBA into a dictatorship….
What does this mean for the upcoming season? No one knows. I guess David Stern can now pick and choose whatever deal he does and does not want to approve. The NBA under Stern’s regime has been accused of being fixed for a long time. Ask Sacramento fans. I guess every trade has to be followed by “If David Stern Allows It.”
The sad part about this is the Hornets will never even come close to getting this much for Chris Paul. They were about to get Kevin Martin, Luis Scola, Lamar Odom, Goran Dragic and a 2012 first-round pick that Houston had acquired from the Knicks. Who is even going to come close to that? New Orleans basically received an entire starting lineup for Chris Pau. Houston would have gotten Pau Gasol and the Lakers would have gotten Chris Paul. We are now robbed of seeing Derrick Caracter and Ater Majok as the Lakers front line once Andrew Bynum gets his annual injury. OK, it wouldn’t have been that bad, the Lakers would have two trade exceptions after that trade, one worth 8.9 Million, so in theory they would have been able to fill the void on the front line with a pretty decent player.
So far the backlash from this has been pretty heavy. Twitter exploded as soon as this was announced, fans from EVERY team were pissed, even the usually loyal writers at ESPN wrote a number of articles criticizing this move. Oh and Chris Paul is planning on suing the NBA. He has a good case too. If New Orleans can’t trade Chris Paul by the end of the season (and I bet a lot of owners are going to be scared to even try, think about how awkward practice is going to be when Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol show up), he won’t be able to sign a max contract with that team. That means he could lose up to 30-40 million dollars.
Nice work Stern, what’s the next move? Are you going to make all the trades yourself for now on?
Right now Kobe is 6th all-time in points scored (
We said as a joke when we started this blog/podcast that the Knicks would finally get a good team and then there wouldn’t be an NBA. Fast forward 12 months and we get Amar’e Stoudemire, Chauncey Billups and Carmelo Anthony. Then we make the playoffs for the first time in 7 years. Then….NO DAMN SEASON. It’s just not fair. I’m not delusional, this team needs a lot of work to be a contender but they are at least relevant and competitive now. I’d like to see a season or two of it before Amar’es knees explode. 
The New York Knicks Podcast 