Chris Paul recalls vetoed Lakers trade in 2011: 'We was hot'
Then-NBA Commissioner David Stern vetoed the trade over 'basketball reasons'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Chris Paul was close to being traded to the Los Angeles Lakers in 2011.
The Lakers, New Orleans Hornets and Houston Rockets had agreed to a three-team trade that would have put Los Angeles back at the top of the NBA. A Paul and Kobe Bryant backcourt would have been nearly unstoppable at the time.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}But then-NBA Commissioner David Stern vetoed the trade over “basketball reasons.” Paul was later traded to the Los Angeles Clippers.
Paul recalled the vetoed trade on the “Knuckleheads” podcast with Quentin Richardson and Darius Miles. He said he was raging when he heard the traded was nixed.
“I was on the phone with my brother and my agent, and all that,” he said, according to Silver Screen and Roll. “We figuring out a plane to get to New Orleans to get us to LA ... let’s just say my agent clicked over, said hold on, clicked over and then he came back on and he was like, stuttering. And we was hot. We was hot. Me and Kobe had talked, you know what I’m saying? We had talked already and all that. And it was a lot. It was a lot.”
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Paul would spend six seasons with the Clippers and earn five All-Star Game selections.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}However, the point guard is still without an NBA Finals appearance and championship ring.