Chris Paul To The Lakers Deal Blocked By NBA

Just when we were saying our goodbyes to Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol. The NBA comes in and stomps all over the trade that would’ve sent Hornets All-Star Chris Paul to the Lakers and sending Lamar Odom to the Hornets and Gasol to the Rockets.

It’s rumored that several owners felt the trade was unfair and encouraged Commissioner Stern to flex his power as the owner of the Hornets (the NBA). Orrrrr, it just hit some sort of snag and it’s still being worked out. Either way, stay tuned. NBA training camps open tomorrow and there are rumblings CP3 won’t be reporting to camp.

Some owners pushed Stern to demand the trade be nullified, and the Hornets be made to keep Paul on the roster for the foreseeable future, sources said. A chorus of owners were irate with the belief that the five-month lockout had happened largely to stop big-market teams from leveraging small-market teams for star players pending free agency.

“The owners half-pushed this, and Stern took it the rest of the way,” a league source told Yahoo! Sports. “In the end, David didn’t like that the players were dictating where they wanted to go, like Carmelo [Anthony] had, and he wasn’t going to let Chris Paul dictate where he wanted to go.

Oh and shout outs to Shannon Brown for all his contributions. He’s signing with the Phoenix Suns for $3.5 million. The contract he opted out from in L.A., $2.7 Million.

Did the small markets win, I can’t remember?