But then this Chris Paul / Lakers trade / non-trade happened, and it's outrageous. I understand why the owners are mad. I understand why fans are mad. Like it or not, the CBA agreement was never going to prevent CP3, Dwight Howard, Deron Williams, and future superstars from going to the big market teams. And in reality, it has nothing to do with money so much as exposure, because the NBA has a maximum contract, it's not like a Albert Pujols situation, where he goes to the highest bidder - everyone in the NBA bids the same. So with that in mind, of course players are going to go to where they can be more marketable and hopefully make more money of sponsorship.
The CBA agreement is about market share, revenue sharing, and trying to limit these massive player contracts (that the owners originally agreed to, which is why we're in this mess when Rashard Lewis makes 20 million a year to play 20 minutes a game). The CBA will help limit that. But it won't stop superstars from going where they want.
What happened yesterday was abominable. It's worse than calling the MLB All Star game a tie. Because what happened was a fraud. New Orleans knows CP3 won't resign. Why not try to get some value (and they got pretty decent value for him BTW) now before turning it into a Carmelo Anthony situation last year, and he become more of a focus than the team. And if you don't trade him? You just lose out, making your team worse off than trading him.
Now? The NBA can't possibly trade him anywhere. At all. And if they do - Lakers should file a lawsuit. Seriously. They got conned. If the Hornets & the 29 Owners of the Hornets didn't want CP3 to be traded, it should be been clearly established from day one. But it clearly wasn't - and the GM was acting with the best interest of the team in trying to get good young talent before CP3 walks away and New Orleans gets nothing.
Is the NBA going to try to block every trade? This is a very slippery slope if this is what they're going to do. The NBA Owners picked the GM for NO, so it's not like they couldn't of seen this coming. They need a serious reality check.
It angers me that we're now thinking of what could of been if the Angel of Stern wasn't so concerned about the image of the league and it's bigot owners (I'm calling you out Dan Gilbert.) Let's be honest - the Hornets aren't going to be much of anything. Maybe a 6 seed. And that all depends on if they decide some point later down the line that it's "within the best interest of the league" BS that they pulled yesterday. The Lakers went from "eh, likely to do well, lose in WCF to Mavs or Thunder" to "NBA Finals vs. Heat" to "eh, well, does Odom even still want to play in LA?"
This is an absolute disgrace. I pray they make it right today. Because otherwise, this is really, really bad for the image of the league.
