League officials in New York listened to pleas from several Hornets and Rockets officials, but eventually closed down communication.
“I think they were bothered by the backlash, but it’s hard to tell,” one front-office source said.
Stern killed the Hornets’ trade of Paul after several owners complained about the league-owned team dealing the All-Star point guard to the Lakers, league sources said.
Some owners drove Stern to cancel trade and that the Hornets have done to keep Paul in the roster for the foreseeable future, the sources said. A chorus of owners were angry with the belief that the five-month block had happened in large part to stop the big market teams by taking advantage of the small market teams for star players pending free agency.
Trade between the Lakers and Houston Rockets, Hornets had been consumed in late Thursday afternoon, about the same time the League owners and players were completing their vote to ratify a new collective bargaining agreement — an agreement that Stern had repeatedly said it would help to restore the competitive balance of the NBA. League owners had watched last season as some of the biggest stars of the game, he left for larger markets. LeBron James and Chris Bosh joined Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat and Carmelo Anthony forced the Denver Nuggets to trade him to the New York Knicks.
Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert called the trade proposed a "farce" in an email to stern and said he did not know how the League could make the deal happen. The email, which was also sent to Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver and a handful of team owners and was obtained by Y! Sport, asked aft to put trade at the vote of the League's 29 owners.
"The owners half-pushed this and Stern took the rest of the way," said a source from Yahoo! Sports League. "In the end, David liked that the players were dictating where they wanted to go, as Carmel, and he was not going to let Chris Paul dictate where she wanted to go."
Before that, the Lakers expect Stern had reached an agreement to acquire Paul in a deal that would cost them Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom, League sources told Yahoo! Sports. According to the terms of the deal, the Lakers would sent Gasol to the rockets. The Hornets would receive Odom, guards Rockets Kevin Martin and Goran Dragic and forward Luis Scola, League sources said.
Houston had also decided to send a 2012 first round pick – previously obtained by the Knicks – New Orleans as part of the package, a source said.
Director General of Hornets Dell Demps had informed two other finalists for Paul Thursday evening that he had an agreement in place for Paul go Lakers, said front-office sources. All players involved in the trade are now being told to report to their teams for the start of training camp on Friday. League sources do not believe Paul would appear, and Odom told the Los Angeles Times, that he could not attend the first day of the Lakers ' practice.
Hornets officials are unsure how they will proceed with Paul. Will have to keep it? Should seek other trades?
"He will learn soon," said a source.
Demps is "dejected" over heavy handed move by the Office of the Commissioner, said a source Y! Sport. Demps considered resigning his job on Thursday, said League sources and had to be talked out of it. The Hornets had scored a terrific deal for Paul, a business that has been praised by some of the peers of Demps throughout the League. The Office of the League has been consulted during the negotiations and there was never an indication Demps do not have the power to make a deal, said officials involved in trade negotiations. In fact, several teams negotiating with New Orleans to get Paul asked the Office of the League and were told that Demps had full authority to run a business.
The NBA has possessed the Hornets from their purchase by George Shinn in 2010 and has searched for a new owner for the franchise.
Stern heard angry owners on Thursday who insisted that this trade went against the whole reason the owners pushed for the shutdown, that nothing had changed, and yet was Stern who took the decision to cancel the extraordinary agreement. Demps attempted to talk out of it, League officials said, but Stern was absolute in his desire to kill the trade.
Paul had listed the Lakers as one of his favorite destinations, and became a clearer choice for him Thursday after the New York Knicks moved to the brink of completing a contract to 58 million dollars for the free-agent Center Tyson Chandler in four years. The Knicks lost salary cap space that would have had to sign Paul this summer and the Lakers had pushed hard to close a deal for Paul with Houston and New Orleans.
As a rival executive with strong ties to the League Office said, "Stern cared about two things: sell the franchise for the best price possible and showing players who were not going to dictate where the teams would exchange them. Ma or
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