No Paul for Lakers

MANILA, Philippines -- On the same day that NBA owners and players ratified their new collective bargaining agreement, the league played Scrooge to Laker fans.

The NBA, as owners of the New Orleans Hornets, rejected a blockbuster deal that would have sent perennial All Star Chris Paul to the LA Lakers.

The 3-team blockbuster deal would have also sent Laker All-Star Pau Gasol to the Houston Rockets, while New Orleans would receive the Lakers' Lamar Odom and Houston's Luis Scola, Kevin Martin, Goran Dragic and a 2012 first round pick.

When asked why the league nixed the deal, league spokesman Mike Bass said it was due to basketball reasons.

Sources said that a group of NBA owners, assembled in New York for the ratification of the league's new labor pact, protested vigorously that the league-owned Hornets were trading Paul to the star-studded Lakers and convinced NBA commissioner David Stern to intervene. -- ANC

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Posted in: NBA