Chris Paul Traded to Lakers...Or Not

So last night reports came out of a three team deal between the Lakers, Rockets, and Hornets in which the Lakers would acquire PG Chris Paul, the Rockets would acquire F Pau Gasol, and the Hornets would acquire Lamar Odom, Kevin Martin, and others. Then, later on, Commissioner David Stern killed the deal, apparently caving in to pressure from the owners that the deal, on the heels of the lockout, would look pretty bad.

What it looks like to me is that this was a player orchestrated trade. By that, I mean it seems like this is Chris Paul  trying to get his way. If that's true and the deal hadn't been axed, that would just prove that the owners and the league are the same old pussies they have been for years and the players still had all the power. I don't care what the hell the reasoning was behind it, whether it was the teams not wanting larger markets poaching the stars of smaller markets or David Stern not liking Paul controlling exactly where he went like Carmelo did last year (all of those were reasons named by Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports in his article on the deal that fell through). It's good to see that the owners have finally grown a pair and decided to step in and push Stern to veto this kind of deal. It's also nice because it means that Celtics have another chance to try and land Paul (Wojnarowski also says the Celtics have been relentless in attempting to acquire Paul)

The owners are right though, that trade went against every reason the owners pushed for a lockout and that kind of deal would've made it look like the players had neutered them yet again. The league seems to be heading in the right direction, but there's still a lot to be seen as to who has the power.

Chris Paul has just one thing to say on Twitter when the deal was axed. "WoW." (Link to the Tweet, couldn't find the actual Twitter link though.). No one cares what you have to say there Chris. Either play for New Orleans or let yourself get traded to wherever the hell New Orleans wants to send you and see how that works. If it doesn't work, hit free agency and take the offer that you want to take. That simple. It shouldn't be such a big deal. Jesus, these basketball players and their egos. They're probably the most annoying athletes on the planet.