The Trade(s) that Wasn’t
When free agency began on December 9 many people speculated where future free agent Chris Paul would go. The Lakers and Hornets agreed to a trade that, with a third team being the Houston Rockets, would have sent Chris Paul to the Lakers from the Hornets; Pau Gasol to the Houston Rockets from the Lakers; Kevin Martin, Luis Scola, Goran Dragic, and a 2012 first round pick to the Hornets from the Rockets; and Lamar Odom going from the Lakers to the Hornets.
The trade, which would have been a great haul for the Hornets in exchange for a franchise point guard who is on his out the door anyway, did not go through. The problem is the NBA owns the Hornets due to a lack of a buyer last season, which means that the other 29 NBA owners want a say in Hornets’ basketball operations and most of them did not like seeing yet another All-Star go to a big market team. David Stern panicked and nixed the trade.
If that were not enough, the other team in Los Angeles, the Clippers, proposed an equally acceptable trade when it offered Eric Gordon, Chris Kamen, Al-Farouq Aminu, and a 2012 first round pick for Chris Paul. The General Managers of the Hornets (and by that I mean the other NBA owners) demanded backup point guard Eric Bledsoe as well, which forced the Clippers to back out.
Bunch of Babies
This was supposed to be a highly entertaining offseason in which we saw a summer's worth of transactions condensed into just a couple of weeks. Remember this past summer when the NFL ended its lockout? The offseason was shortened and major signings were done left and right. That was supposed to be the excitement of the NBA as well. However, David Stern and the NBA owners had to step in and ruin it for everyone.
I understand that the NBA owns the Hornets and that the other owners have an opinion as to where they want Paul to go and for how much, but Chris Paul can only go to one team, which means that 28 other owners are not going to be happy about where he ends up. The immaturity of these rich, adult men is astounding. Regardless of what happens this season, Chris Paul is going to leave the Hornets and probably go to a major market team. A big reason for the lockout was to try to even the playing field between large and small market teams and now that the owners have the opportunity to get a small market team (New Orleans) major assets for the future, they are balking at the chance by asking for way too much.
In addition, David Stern lost all control as commissioner when he did not let Chris Paul go to the Lakers. Once again, he is not the general manager of the team. If Dell Demps, the actual GM of the Hornets, believes that he has found a suitable trade then let him do his job. Either trade, Lakers or Clippers, would have been perfectly acceptable in terms of getting as much as you can for Chris Paul but now the team and the owners have lost power because they have asked for too much and therefore, all possible trade partners have dropped out.
If the NBA owners want to get something in return for Chris Paul, they just lost all their bargaining chips because now that teams like the Lakers and Clippers know that no other team is going to match what the owners want, they can sit back and let the NBA come to them. The Hornets may end up with much less than the owners expected and the great irony becomes present because the owners, in an effort to get a small market team maximum assets for a franchise player, may have just cost the franchise a considerable amount.
Dwight-mare
The other free agent to be, Dwight Howard, keeps flip-flopping back and forth as to whether or not he wants to stay in Orlando. Dwight Howard is such a fantastic player and the best center the NBA has seen since Shaq in his hay-day, but my respect for Dwight as a person lessens every time he opens his mouth and contradicts what he has previously said.
Last season Dwight said he did not want to talk about his future in Orlando. That’s fine, focus on the season and there is always next year. But next year has come and Dwight cannot seem to figure out what he wants.
First Howard said he wanted to be traded, then said that he wanted to stay in Orlando but that the Magic were not making the proper transactions necessary to keep him there. Now, he has a list of four teams he wants to play for next season which include the Magic, Lakers, New Jersey/(soon to be) Brooklyn Nets, and Dallas Mavericks.
Learning From LeBron
It is obvious the backlash that LeBron saw when he left Cleveland for Miami in the summer of 2010; he immediately became a villain and traitor in the eyes of most of America. Dwight Howard has taken note of that and does not want the same thing to happen to him.
LeBron was the face of the Cavs much like Dwight is the face of the Magic. Howard is afraid that if he forces a trade or leaves through free agency that he will be the next guy that turns from hero to villain. That is why he has tried to turn this whole situation around by blaming the Orlando front office for not doing what he thought was right. What Dwight may not realize, however, is that it is not his job to make front office decisions. Magic executives should double check with Dwight about trades and signings considering he is the center (pun intended) of the team, but for Dwight to assume the General Manager is going to whatever he asks is absurd. Also, does he realize that no free agent is going to sign with Orlando if that free agent does not expect Howard to be with the Magic much longer? If Dwight wants help in Orlando he needs to recruit players by telling them he is there for the long haul. The problem is that he isn’t, so he won’t.
Howard needs to admit that he does not want to be in Orlando and just save the Magic from further embarrassment. He wants to get traded as soon as possible and he does not want to wait until next offseason to start playing with another team. Howard needs to step up and just accept the fact that he won’t be liked for forcing a trade, but it is better than stringing the Orland Magic and its fans around until the last possible second and then blindsiding them, just ask Cleveland fans.
NBA = No Boys Allowed
It is time for the members of the NBA to grow up. The chaos that has followed the Chris Paul and Dwight Howard situations has shown a light on the immaturity of so many people involved in the NBA, from the commissioner and NBA owners to the players themselves. Enough with the child-like behavior and act like the adults you are paid like.
The commissioner and NBA owners need to grow up and let Chris Paul go to a team that he actually wants to play for instead of tying him down in New Orleans. The trade was there (twice), the owners just got greedy.
Dwight Howard needs to grow up and express his true feelings with words. Just admit you want nothing to do with Orlando. It has nothing to do with the transactions they may, or may not, have made. The Magic cannot lure free agents to the Magic if Dwight is on the way out. Dwight, count to three and just rip the bandage off already.
These situations just need to be settled so that the fans, who already had to endure a summer full of selfishness on behalf of the owners and Players Association, can just sit back and enjoy basketball.
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