Recently Chris Paul was traded to the LA Lakers from the New Orleans Hornets for Lamar Odom and Adrew Bynum. The Houston Rockets were also involved but LA was not receiving any players from them so I'm leaving them out. Commissioner David Stern blocked the trade because it was "unfair" and many owners agreed with him including Dan Gilbert, owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers, who made public his e-mail he sent to the commissioner complaining that the Lakers gave up no draft picks and shaved 40 million in costs in making the trade, leaving cap room and options to trade for another big name such as Dwight Howard.
As an extremely loyal and devout Cavalier fan, I cannot endorse the e-mail sent by our owner. In effect, he is trying to make it impossible for anyone to thwart the Miami Heat and live up to his guarantee "that the Cleveland Cavaliers will win an NBA championship before the self-titled former 'king' wins one" (From Gilbert's statement after Lebron James decided to go to Miami).
Also in his e-mail GIlbert said, "They should just rename 25 of the 30 teams the Washington Generals"
A little different from "If you thought we were motivated before tonight to bring the hardware to Cleveland, I can tell you that this shameful display of selfishness and betrayal....has shifted our "motivation" to previously unknown and previously never experienced levels" (see above reference)
The hornets would've received a good/great center in Gasol or Odom and a really good power forward in Luis Scola (From Rockets), They believed they were benefitting from this trade. It is only an issue between the three times involved in the trade and should have nothing to do with any other owner or the commissioner. We had the lockout to try to limit Stern's power, and now he is blocking teams from doing what they think is right for their team. I don't think the New Orleans Hornets would purposely destroy their franchise to help the Lakers...if they want to make a trade, nobody except the teams they're negotiating with should stop them!
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