Still waiting on my re-tweet, Chris Paul. Still waiting... from Bleacher Report.

by Justin Cherot

CP3 (9:11 PM): WoW

TheJustinCherot (9:13 PM): Dude I didn’t know you played [World] of Warcraft!!!

Chris Paul hasn’t re-tweeted me yet, and I don’t expect him to for two reasons: 1) I accidentally tweeted “War of Warcraft”, a game that doesn’t exist and, 2) I would think he has more important things on his mind, like making a Kill Bill-like revenge list on every owner who voted to shoot the trade down (props to Adrian Wojnarowski who broke the initial story).

“WoW” is right.

I guess I understand why the owners’ panties are all in a bunch.  I mean, the NBA basically halted operations for five months–149 days to be exact–because the small market teams wanted some semblance of competitive balance (or, at the core, a guaranteed profit).  The NBA, who owns the New Orleans Hornets temporarily, might have been sending mixed signals by letting a trade if this magnitude go through. 

“Yeah, 22 of 30 lost money last year, but that doesn’t mean we can’t flip the best asset from one of those 22 teams to one of the eight teams that actually profited… right???” 

But honestly, the owners who did reject this deal need to relax.  Whether it’s today, tomorrow or next July 1st, Paul is dipping anyway, so that being the case, this trade would have been an NBA rarity…

EVERYONE WOULD HAVE WON!!!

Obviously, the Los Angeles Lakers would have gone from having a rotation of D-League caliber point guards (sorry Derek Fisher and Steve Blake but even your parents would agree with me) to arguably the best point guard in the league who could undoubtedly extend Kobe Bryant’s career.  Upgrade is an understatement.  But look at the other parties: New Orleans would have received a combined 43 points per game between Kevin Martin and Luis Scola, not to mention a potential sleeper at point guard in Goran Dragic AND a mid first round pick.  The Houston Rockets, the “loser”, would have gotten Pau Gasol, who just a year and a half ago was the undisputed best four man in the NBA (that title has since been handed back to Dirk Nowitzki, but you knew that). 

So yes, while I understand the ill-timing and awkward nature of this trade right out of a lockout, the owners need to just quit crying and let this one go through.  You can cry “small market” this and “competitive balance” that, but at the end of the day, the NBA dropped the ball by succumbing to the owners’ demands. 

WoW.