It seems like just earlier this year we were dealing with the same drama with Carmelo Anthony, but the drama around one of Melo's best friends Chris Paul, has taken trade drama to an entirely new level. While Lakers fans were ecstatic because yesterday evening a trade has taken place involving the LA Lakers that would change their team in a major way. On the other hand while the fans were super excited and preparing to welcome the superstar to LA, the owners had another say on the trade. With the New Orleans Hornets being owned by the NBA all 29 owners have a say in what goes on with the team. Almost a year ago Phil Jackson stated once the league acquired the Hornets when its time to trade Chris Paul is going to be a major problem. Well boy was Jackson right. After the buzz of Paul going to LA begin to spread the owners who did not agree, which was pretty much all the owners except for those involved in the trade, emailing Commissioner David Stern asking him to put a stop to the trade. Most owners stated that trading Paul to the Lakers went against the competitive balance that had been preached the entire lockout. Shortly after 10 pm, only 3 hours after it had been announced that Paul would be going to the Lakers, it was announced that Stern had put a kill to the CP3 trade to LA. If the trade would have been upheld Chris Paul would have been sent to the Lakers, Pau Gasol to the Houston Rockets, and Lamar Odom, along with 3 players from the Rockets, would have been sent to the Hornets. Before the trade had taken place it was stated that the New York Knicks were also pursuing CP3, which is really where he wanted to be in order to play with best friend Carmelo Anthony. Only issue with that trade is that Melo is the reason CP3 could join the Knicks, due to the fact that the Knicks had traded its players that would be appealing to other teams in order to get Carmelo Anthony before the trade deadline last season. It was also reported earlier this week that the Boston Celtics were willing to trade Rajon Rondo and Jeff Green for Paul. Paul showed up for training camp with the Hornets but it will be interesting to see how things will turn out. The 3 teams involved in the trade plans on appealing the decision by the league, Paul was planning on suing the league, and it has now been reported that the league has now reopened trade talks for all trades involving Paul. It will be interesting to see if Paul do end up in LA, or if the Knicks will find away to bring him to NY or if the Boston Celtics will revisit the idea of trading Rondo and Green for Paul. It was also reported that if Paul was not traded by Monday he would pursue a lawsuit against the league through the players association. If Paul remains with the Hornets this year he will be a free agent at the end of this season so he can go to whichever team he feels is the best fit for him that offers him a deal. Stay tuned to see how this turns out.
