The Chris Paul trade to the Los Angeles Lakers is dead, and the circumstances don't look good for the league, at least if this report from Yahoo! Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski proves to be true. According to Wojnarowski, a cluster of owners, upset that a big-market team was leveraging a small-market club to acquire Paul, pushed for NBA commissioner David Stern to kill the deal.
Some owners pushed Stern to demand that 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.
Up until this point, the NBA had allowed everyone to negotiate the trade without interfering, Wojnarowski reports. But now, under the pressure of its owners, it appears the league has stepped in. Hornets general manager Dell Demps was "disconsolate" over the news, Wojnarowski reports.
It appears the league has backed itself into a corner now. Can it really trade Paul anywhere at this point?
For more on the Hornets, visit At the Hive. For more on the Lakers, visit SB Nation Los Angeles and Silver Screen and Roll. For more on the Rockets, visit The Dream Shake and SB Nation Houston.
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