Thursday marked the five-year anniversary of one of David Stern’s most infamous decisions. On that day in 2011, the former NBA commissioner vetoed a trade that would have sent Chris Paul from the New Orleans Hornets to the Los Angeles Lakers. Shortly after, Paul was traded to the LA Clippers, instead.
But in the eyes of the former commissioner, it was not a veto at all. In his eyes, there was never a trade.
Stern recently did a Q&A with Brian Berger of Sports Business Radio and had the following to say (as transcribed by SI’s Ben Golliver):
“I’m going to correct your language. What ‘cancellation?’ The GM [Dell Demps] was not authorized to make that trade. And acting on behalf of owners, we decided not to make it. I was an owner rep. There was nothing to ‘void.’ It just never got made.
“When you’re the commissioner and you have two teams that are ticked off at you, as in the Lakers and Houston, and the GMs without wanting to be attributed, spend their time trashing you, the wrong impression can be granted. It was one of the few times I decided to just go radio silent and let it play out, and I got killed. So, the answer is: there was never a trade. It was never approved by me as the owner rep.”
Well, Stern certainly isn’t holding back on any of the blame. He has a point; the NBA (though not officially the commissioner) was the acting owner of the Hornets at that time and had the right to make and confirm trades. Although, to say that there was no trade seems a little…off. The teams had come to an agreement and it was released as a near-official transaction before Stern intervened.
As a Lakers fan, I don’t believe there was some conspiracy to keep Chris Paul away from the Lakers. I did believe at the time that David Stern acted outside of his jurisdiction, but I can also see where he may have felt the need to do so, especially when trying to sell the team. Also, my hot take is that the Lakers ended up in a better situation with this young core rather than trying to manage a Paul-Kobe-Dwight Howard trifecta.
