Chris Paul-to-Lakers Trade Hits Snag, Won’t Go Through

Earlier today, the Internet exploded when news broke that the Hornets were trading Chris Paul to the Lakers in a three-team trade that’d also move Lamar Odom, Kevin Martin, Luis Scola and Goran Dragic to New Orleans and Pau Gasol to Houston. Well, looks like the deal has hit a bit of a snag. Here’s Yahoo!‘s latest report: “NBA commissioner David Stern has killed the New Orleans Hornets’ trade of Chris Paul after several owners complained about the league-owned team dealing the All-Star point guard to the Los Angeles Lakers, league sources told Yahoo! Sports. Some owners pushed Stern to demand that trade be nullified, and the Hornets be made to keep Paul on the roster for the foreseeable future, sources said. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban was one of the most vocal in a chorus of owners irate with the belief that the five-month lockout had happened largely to stop big-market teams from leveraging small-market teams for star players pending free agency. All the players involved in the trade have been told to report to their teams for the start of training camp on Friday. Before Stern intervened, the Lakers had reached an agreement to acquire Paul in a three-team trade that would have cost them Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom, league sources told Yahoo! Sports. Under terms of the deal, the Lakers would have sent Gasol to the Rockets. The Hornets would have received Odom, Rockets guards Kevin Martin and Goran Dragic and forward Luis Scola, league sources said.”