The Hornets should have never been allowed to move to New Orleans to begin with. The city of New Orleans didn't have the corporate money to support an NBA franchise before Katrina and they really don't have it now.
If 15 owners said No to the trade then Stern didn't have a choice. The Hornets are league owned so majority vote gets to make that decision. Whether or not that happened is still unknown.
I get what Strern is trying to do, which is keep the huge market teams from being dynasties while the rest of the league acts as feeder systems - which is why i don't like the NBA, because its a player-driven league. However... these teams, their owners and GMs, decided this was best for their franchise, even if it wasn't what they'd ideally want to do. If Paul has no desire to sign with New Orleans, then the Hornets have every right to trade the guy and get what they can for him, no matter what team it is. It makes no sense for New Orleans to hold onto the guy if he doesn't want to play for them anymore. These things happen in other leagues and it is what it is, a business decision for the teams making the trades. Is New Orleans supposed to hold onto him until the end of the season and then get nothing for him? Are they supposed to hold onto him until a trade happens that Stern agrees with? Does that mean that Paul goes only where the Commish says he's gonna go? This smacks of collusion, and even tho i hate the trade, hate to see the rich get richer, New Orleans did what they thought best, and got quality in their return for Paul. The Nuggets fleeced New York to get rid of a one-dimensional player whose only chance for success is to have a strong supporting cast. The Nuggets got better as a team by getting rid of their star player - tho that won't be in effect this season because of who they lost overseas. Who knows... the player(s) they get in the draft just might be the next Chris Paul. I just don't agree with Stern on this one, know matter the good intentions he has...
For folks saying that now Hornets aren't gonna get anything.. who cares? It's worse than the Lakers forming another freakin dynasty. ****.
This is guy is an absolute ****ing idiot. In my opinion I think the Hornets got the better end of that 3-way deal with 4 good players and a really good draft pick. I guess now when Chris Paul leaves the Hornets next year and tells the Hornets to go **** themselves, David Stern can come up with a stupid reason and say "it was a basketball decision" to screw the Hornets and let Chris Paul walk while the Hornets get nothing in return. So once again David Stern, great job you idiot. By the way, what are you going to tell the players who are weirded out?
Yes lets prevent New Orleans from improving their franchise just to stop the Lakers from making a trade.
Pauls still under contract. I would careless where my unhappy player would want to be traded to, if I were the owner id send him to china.
Whatever, he stopped a ****tty deal for us, I ain't complainging. I couldn't give two shet about what Lakers and New Orleans to be honest
Under the guise of protecting smaller market teams, he really screwed the Hornets. Can/will Paul even be traded now? Stern just guaranteed that any trade NO does make, they'll be getting less of a return than they would have, which most everybody agree was a good deal for them. He took away any leverage they had. And maybe Stern has poisoned the well so much with this move that Paul is now untradeable and will leave as a FA, leaving NO with nothing. Good job David, kudos to you.
This is the only positive thing Stern has ever done, he has saved Morey from himself!! God we would've sucked if that trade had gone through.
Some quote from Wojo's Yahoo! article: http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_y...narowski_chris_paul_lakers_hornets_nba_120811 [rquoter]“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 had, and he wasn’t going to let Chris Paul dictate where he wanted to go.”[/rquoter] [rquoter]Hornets general manager Dell Demps is “disconsolate” over the heavy-handed move from the commissioner’s office, a source told Y! Sports. Demps considered resigning his job on Thursday, league sources said, and had to be talked out of it. The Hornets had scored a terrific deal for Paul, a trade that was lauded by some of Demps’ peers throughout the league. Officials involved in the trade talks said the league office was consulted throughout the negotiations, and there was never an indication Demps didn’t have the power to make a deal. In fact, several teams negotiating with New Orleans to get Paul asked the league office, and were told Demps had full authority to execute a trade.[/rquoter] [rquoter]As one rival executive with strong ties to the league office said, “Stern cared about two things: Selling that franchise for the best possible price; and showing the players that they weren’t going to dictate where teams could trade them. But now, there’s no way that the league can allow Chris Paul to be traded at all, otherwise Stern is basically deciding where one of the top players in the league is going versus having any fair process.”[/rquoter] [rquoter]“We were all told by the league he was a trade-able player, and now they’re saying that Dell doesn’t have the authority to make the trade?” said an NBA executive who had periodic talks with New Orleans throughout the process. “Now, they’re saying that Dell is an idiot, that he can’t do it his job. [Expletive] this whole thing. David’s drunk on power, and he doesn’t give a [expletive] about the players, and he doesn’t give a [expletive] about the hundreds of hours the teams put in to make that deal.[/rquoter]
Despite the objection's of the owners, Stern could have done nothing and let this deal go through. The fact that he stopped it from happening strengthens arguments that the NBA is a dictatorial or oligarchic in nature. The really funny or sad part, depending on how you want to look at it, is the deal (as others have said) would have benefited NO. Now Paul can leave at the end of the season and the Hornets get nothing in return. Stern really looks like an idiot. Good job, David.
Because we would be dismantling our mediocre team! Scola and Martin are our top 2 scorers and without them we can't lock up that 14th overall pick again while just missing the playoffs
