The Chris Paul Circus: How the NBA Killed Basketball in New Orleans

As I was driving to Saddle River, NJ from my apartment in Brighton, MA, news broke that elite point guard Chris Paul would be traded from the New Orleans Hornets to the Los Angeles Lakers for a package that included Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol. The Hornets would then spin off Gasol to the Houston Rockets for Kevin Martin, Luis Scola, Goran Dragic, and possibly draft picks. When I originally heard the news, I was conflicted emotionally; I am a proud New York Knickerbockers fan and Paul was supposed to be the final piece in New York's very own 'Big Three'. However, I have nothing against the Lakers (I love watching Kobe play) and the trade seemed pretty fair to me, as the Hornets gave up one great player for four pretty good players. I liked the deal for all sides, but apparently the NBA, through commissioner David Stern, did not feel the same way. The trade was vetoed by the league (which is totally in their power to do, both as the governing body of the sport and as the de-facto owner of the bankrupt Hornets) late in the evening, and I was flabbergasted. I heard all day about how the deal was basically already done, and all of a sudden it was no more. I didn't understand the reasoning at the time, and I still don't.

Apparently, Stern was swayed by the protests of many small-market owners who did not want Paul going to a big media market to help the Lakers continue their historical dominance of the Western Conference. The most vocal owner opposing this deal was Cleveland Cavaliers boss Dan Gilbert, who sent this email to the league office regarding the deal. Please take the time to read the email, because I'm sure it'll make you as angry as it made me. First of all, Mr. Gilbert should really stop sending out strongly worded letters/emails; they make him look a like a jerk (which he probably is). Second, he had no right to try and block the trade, as Commissioner Stern expressly stated that Hornets' GM Dell Demps had the full power a normal GM has and could trade as he saw fit to help the franchise. That's exactly what Demps did: he got a good deal for a star that was guaranteed to walk away for nothing at the end of the season. He also helped avoid his own version of the 'Melo-Drama' that really hurt Denver's chemistry for half of the season last year. By all accounts, Demps made the right move to help his struggling franchise stay competitive. Finally, Gilbert's question at the end of the email was absolutely outrageous. He said, "When will we just change the name of 25 of the 30 teams to the Washington Generals?" I find this quote ridiculously stupid for many reasons. Just because stars are choosing to play in larger markets than Cleveland and New Orleans, it doesn't mean that the other "25" teams have no shot to compete for a title. The Heat's Big Three lost the title last season, and the small-market Memphis Grizzlies & Oklahoma City Thunder each had a great shot at representing the West in the NBA Finals. I also dislike the connotation that the Washington Generals comment implies: the NBA is rigged. With the massive Tim Donaghy scandal already hurting the NBA's credibility in the fairness department, the league doesn't need any more observers thinking the results are fixed.

Through listening to Gilbert and the other small-market owners, David Stern and the NBA made a big mistake by not allowing this trade to go through. Let me explain. Chris Paul is GONE at the end of the year, no matter what happens with the Hornets this season. He does not want to play in a small market, and I don't blame him. He has the right to opt out of his contract, and should be able to choose where he wants to play. Since free agency was won by MLB players in 1975, after breaking the reserve clause system (which was almost like indentured servitude), players in all American sports have had the right to move freely between teams and cities when their contractual obligations were satisfied. Paul's contractual obligations will be satisfied at the end of the season, and he will leave. By not allowing the Hornets management to make a trade that betters their team and sends Paul somewhere he would like to go, the NBA is toeing a fine line. If Paul brings suit, as he is strongly considering doing, the NBA's anti-trust exemption and the brand-new collective bargaining agreement are up for challenge and could be eliminated. The NBA does not want this, and I think they should have known that their actions would lead to something like this.

The NBA has also irreparably harmed the future of basketball in New Orleans. The team was already bankrupt and owned by the league (a huge conflict of interest, by the way) and buyers weren't exactly lining up to purchase the franchise. The NBA is continuing to say that buyers will not be interested in the Hornets without Chris Paul. I agree. Unfortunately for the league and the Hornets, that will be the reality at the end of the season. Trading Paul for the best possible package of assets, both players and picks, would be the only way to salvage any hope of a buyer making an offer and keeping the team in New Orleans. This was not allowed to happen. At first, Stern said that the deal was vetoed because of basketball reasons, but now he is changing course and saying that it hurts the 'value' of the Hornets. I'm sorry, but the Hornets have no value; they are a team that is perennially mediocre with Chris Paul and would be much worse if he left for nothing. Nobody is jumping at the chance to own a team that consistently loses money in a market with few available corporate sponsors and fans that are unable to afford the skyrocketing ticket prices that would be required to break even. By vetoing this trade offer, which was fair and probably the best package that the Hornets could hope for, Stern has set a dangerous precedent. Now he will not be able to accept a deal in the future for Paul without making the league look like a rigged game. This means that Paul is going to walk away at the end of the season and sign with whatever team he chooses, leaving the Hornets with nothing in return. I think this will effectively kill basketball in New Orleans, whether it leads to an owner buying the team on the cheap and moving them to a more profitable location, or the outright contraction of the Hornets.

As bad as this situation is for the Hornets, Lakers, Rockets, and the NBA as a whole, I am ecstatic as a Knicks fan. Chris Paul's number one destination has always been my favorite team, but the Knicks have no one to trade for him. By not allowing the Hornets to trade Paul, the league gave the Knicks another chance at him through free agency. And I can't wait to see what happens.

-Cote