With the NBA-owned Hornets sitting at a dreadful 5-23, Mavericks owner Mark Cuban blasted the league for the decision to trade Chris Paul from New Orleans to the Los Angeles Clippers before the season. The Hornets, Cuban opined, would have been better off holding onto Paul for the rest of the season—and watching him walk away as a free agent in summer 2012—rather than trading him to the Clippers for a package that included Eric Gordon, Chris Kaman, Al-Farouq Aminu and Minnesota's unprotected 2012 first-round pick.
"You're better off just taking the cap room, or whatever,"
In fairness to the Hornets, Gordon, the centerpiece of the package they got in return for Paul, has played only two games this season because of a bone bruise. But the trade looks even worse for the Hornets with the news that Gordon will miss an additional six weeks after having arthroscopic surgery on his right knee on Tuesday. Plus, Gordon may leave New Orleans as a free agent this offseason, anyway, since the team did not sign him to an extension by the Jan. 25 deadline.
The Hornets originally tried to trade Paul to the Lakers in a three-way deal that also included the Rockets, but that move was nixed by commissioner David Stern, who was acting as steward of the New Orleans franchise. Some believed Stern wanted to keep Paul away from the Lakers, since thrust of the owners’ stance in the collective-bargaining negotiations was that big-market teams had too many advantages when it came to acquiring the league’s best players.
"I don't think it was about the Lakers, per se," Cuban said, per ESPN. "I think it was just the way they did the deal, which was ridiculous. I don't think it was about which team. I think it was the fact that, even with the Clippers, we just went through this whole (collective bargaining agreement) and said the incumbent team still has the advantage and then the team the league owns (wimps) out. And look how it's worked out for them.
"Bad management gets you bad results."
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