Chris Paul Finally Opened Up About Being Traded To The Lakers Back In 2011 Before David Stern Vetoed It

Andrew D. Bernstein. Getty Images.

NBA history is littered with "what ifs" that you could make the case would have changed the course of the league as we know it. Add in its history with controversy, and I'm not sure there are too many "what ifs" bigger than the vetoed Chris Paul trade to the Lakers back in 2011. First of all, it's extremely fucked up that 2011 feels like it was 50000 years ago. God are we all so old. How embarrassing.

I'll always remember where I was when that news leaked that Stern vetoed the trade. I was at my old job's holiday party in downtown Boston (shoutout Brafton) and saw the update right before I entered the ballroom. I immediately called my dad to tell him the news since he has no idea how the internet or anything works, and we rejoiced that yet another star would not be heading to LA. At this time, Paul was a 4x All Star, was a lock for both All NBA and All NBA Defensive teams, and was largely considered one of if not the best point guards on the planet. I know people may only think of the older CP3 nowadays, but back then? 12 years ago? The guy was a monster

At the time, the league had bought out the Hornets in an effort to keep them in New Orleans, so David Stern and the league office was essentially the front office. They were in control of any and all roster decisions until they found a buyer.

Enter the Lakers trade.

How many people remember the offer all these years later? Was it even so bad?

Now 12 years later and with the benefit of hindsight, that package isn't exactly terrible. Especially when you realize the deal that David Stern did accept to send Paul to the Clippers

Al-Farouq Aminu, Eric Gordon, Chris Kaman, a 2012 1st (Austin Rivers)

While I'll never pass up the chance to celebrate Lakers misery, even I can admit they got a little boned by Stern there. The spin we heard in the following years as to why Stern made that decision never really made sense. Former executive Stu Jackson suggested it was because it would have made the Hornets unattractive to a potential owner (despite taking a worse trade offer later)

“[Stern] “ran things by me, as an ex-general manager at the time. I explained to David the following … I felt that the package of Odom, Martin, Scola, Dragic was going to vault the New Orleans Hornets to a position where they’d make the playoffs but they were going to be a playoff team that was not capable of winning a championship.

“In other words, I thought so much of Monty Williams, I thought he would coach them up and get in the playoffs, not have home-court advantage and fans would be happy, obviously, but they would be caught in mediocrity and a mediocre team is not necessarily attractive to a potential owner. They want lesser payroll, they want to put their stamp on the team and build it and by making this trade, to me it made the franchise unattractive, or less attractive, to a potential owner. And to my surprise after another day David kind of got his head wrapped around it and he agreed. He made the decision to veto the trade and not approve.”

There were other reports that owners around the league called Stern and demanded he veto it because the trade would make the Lakers a superteam and would kill a small market team, something that just caused a lockout. I'm sure the truth is somewhere in the middle, and the rest was history.

When it came to CP3, we never really heard him open up about this trade. He would mention it in passing, but wouldn't really dive into it. Well, we now have that

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I think it's fair to suggest that the 2011 version of CP3 paired with the 2011 version of Kobe probably would have had a decent amount of success together. Now they would certainly have to replace Odom/Gasol who were two important pieces to their previous titles, but you figure that shit out. 

Unless you happen to be a Lakers fan, it is fun to think about what happens in the league had that trade gone through. There's no Lob City, maybe there's no Heat run of consecutive titles and who knows what happens there if they kept coming up empty, maybe Kobe catches MJ, the possibilities are endless.

Who knows, maybe now that Paul only has a partially guaranteed contract for next season ($15M), the Suns look to avoid paying a 38 year old point guard $30M (guaranteed after 6/28) and Paul does finally find his way to the Lakers. Lord knows they'd rather have him than DLo, there's the LeBron connection, I don't think it's necessarily a stretch. If LeBron wants point guard help, I imagine the path to Chris Paul is certainly easier than say, Kyrie Irving. While I'm not sure getting older is the path the Lakers should be taking, it wouldn't surprise me if that's how things shook out.