The NBA God Trades The Point God.
Chris Paul is finally going somewhere as the Clippers decided to trade everyone not named Blake Griffin to the Hornets in exchange for the Point God.
Was he worth the price? Of course he was. Donald Sterling would have had allow 10 Haitian immigrants to live in his own mansion in order to land a talent like Chris Paul.
The Clippers still have a lot of questions left to answer, like how to undo the logjam at point, if one of the hot dog vendors at Staples can play Shoot Guard for them, or how they can possibly kill Vinny Del Negro without anyone noticing. But all of those are after thoughts, everything will seem blissful when Staples is filled with magical rainbows sprouting from the endless stream of CP3-to-Griffin ally-oops.
But the Clippers aren’t the real story here.
The real story is how great of a deal David Stern got for the Hornets. Eric Gordon probably has the best value-to-skill contract of any tradeable player in the NBA. Still on his rookie deal, top 15 scorer last year and plays both sides of the ball like a cottdamn honey badger. Stern also managed to land the corpse of Chris Kaman, who he can flip to a contender for a pick or two at the deadline and Minnesota’s unprotected 1st round pick in what’s going to be a loaded draft this coming summer. By the way, good luck to the Wolves this year if the league still owns the Hornets throughout. I’m not saying anything but, you know, we’re all thinking it. Just remember, when the Wolves can’t buy a single call and Kevin Love is ejected for grabbing too many rebounds, don’t say I didn’t sort-of-wink-wink-but-not-really imply that some kind of conspiracy might transpire.
This is exactly what the Hornets needed, young cheap talent that can still win a few games and put fans in seats yet keep the costs low enough until some one (who doesn’t want to move the team) buy the Hornets. And with the new increases in revenue sharing, chances are the Hornets won’t have to move.
Stern might have temporarily ignited riots across the country by vetoing the original trade with the Lakers, but this move proves what we’ve all suspected for years. NBA owners and GMs are idiots when it comes to trade negotiations. David Stern robbed the Clippers blind. In a one-team market, Stern convinced the Clippers to bid against themselves. And even after the Clippers pulled out of the CP3 fiasco, he got them to come back in at the same exact price. The man is brilliant and probably deserves GM of the year.
It’s sort of not fair, if you think about it. Stern helped create all the rules. He enforces all the rules. Sometimes, he pulls out rules that we didn’t even know existed. He has hand in everything. He knows everyone on every team including every member of all the front offices. He knows who is smart and who is lacking in that capacity. He knows what team is hurting for cash and which ones are raking it in. He knows everything about everyone and now they all had no choice but to sit across the table from him. In a way, he’s the God of the NBA. He’s omnipresent, omnipotent, omnibenevolent. Okay, maybe he’s not omnibenevolent.
So, New Orleans, what do you think of David Stern now? Not so bad, right? Maybe you guys should retire his number once the franchise is sold. ‘666’ would look fantastic up in the rafters.
