One of the most infamous days in Los Angeles Lakers history came on Dec. 8, 2011. It was on this day that the NBA vetoed a trade that would have sent point guard Chris Paul to the Lakers for “basketball reasons” and denying a team-up with Kobe Bryant to create what could have been one of the best backcourts in the history of the league.
It will forever go down as one of the biggest what ifs in NBA history as who knows what those two legends could have accomplished together. Now with Paul recently announcing his retirement from the NBA, he gets the time to really reflect on everything that happened in his career, which of course includes the trade that never happened.
Paul appeared on The Tylil Show and spoke on the vetoed trade saying he was excited upon the news of the deal and explaining why the league ultimately cancelled the deal:
“Once the lockout ended and we went back to our teams, I got traded to the Lakers. At the time my team was owned by the NBA. The owner of my team ran out of money. So the NBA took over my team. The NBA was making decisions for my team…. Next thing you know, the league receded it. I was excited. They said be ready to play the whole year back here and then it was quiet. What happened was a few of the owners of the other teams said we just came out of a lockout and did a new CBA, they said we was all about competitive balance. So they said if I went to the Lakers, it wasn’t gonna be competitive balance. Now where’s the league?”
It was truly an unprecedented situation as the NBA did own the New Orleans Pelicans, so they had control over any decisions the team made. That, along with the league coming off a lockout in which owners were complaining about the lack of competitive balance for big market teams, combined to make many owners up in arms at the thoughts of the Lakers acquiring yet another superstar via trade.
Coincidentally, Paul would eventually be traded to the same big market, just the Los Angeles Clippers instead of the Lakers, where he made his biggest impact in making that franchise a viable contender for the first time. The Lakers would pivot and acquire another Hall of Fame point guard in Steve Nash along with Dwight Howard, but that famously failed to materialize into another championship.
The vetoed trade still goes down as one of the most unbelievable moments in recent NBA history and was truly a situation that will likely never be replicated. But many will always wonder what could have been if Paul and Bryant were able to be teammates in purple and gold.
Lakers’ LeBron James ‘very intrigued’ at Anthony Davis trade to Wizards
In the many years since, the Lakers have continued to acquire superstars via trade with the latest being Luka Doncic. The franchise sent away Anthony Davis to the Dallas Mavericks to make that deal happen and they have since dealt the big man to the Washington Wizards. And LeBron James is ‘very intrigued’ by what Davis and Trae Young can do in Washington next season.
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