In an interesting post-term revelation, former NBA commissioner David Stern explained that a potential deal to send then-New Orleans Hornets point guard Chris Paul to the Los Angeles Lakers, which was initially nixed, could have been re-worked had general manager Mitch Kupchak not “panicked” during the process.
The Lakers were in need of a boost to make the most of Kobe Bryant‘s last few years in the NBA and had set up a three-team deal with the Hornets and the Houston Rockets. After seemingly having a deal in place, Stern nixed the trade for what he cited as “basketball reasons.”
The Lakers soon chose to go another direction, acquiring Dwight Howard and Steve Nash, leading to a franchise-worst run, with a soon-to-follow four-year futile stretch.
“(My decision) was only based on what was good for New Orleans, or what was not good for New Orleans. It had nothing to do with the Lakers at all,” Stern assured during a guest appearance on the “Nunyo and Company” podcast earlier this month, as transcribed by Harrison Faigen of Silver Screen and Roll.
“And in fact, in the course of the weekend, we thought we could re-do the deal. We really thought that Houston would be ready to part with Kyle Lowry; and we had a trade lined up for (Lamar) Odom that would have gotten us a good first round draft pick. Not we, but my basketball folks. But Mitch Kupchak at the time panicked, and moved Odom to Dallas. So the piece wasn't even there for us to play with at the time. So that was it – just about what was good for the then New Orleans Hornets.”
Odom was shaken upon finding out the Lakers' intention to move him, ultimately showing his discontent with the organization and being shipped out to the Dallas Mavericks, starting the derailment of his career.
While there's no way to know why Stern is coming out with the details six years after the fact, the nixing of the trade changed the scope of the Lakers' history for that season, but the acquisitions and series of bad moves had more to do with the front office making them than Stern choosing to pass on the Paul deal.
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