The Hornets Get Stung

First of all welcome back to the NBA Outsider Perspective Blog...But hey there has been so much action in the League these past couple days lets get right to it. Phil Jackson AKA the Zen Master himself said this would happen to the Hornets last November! For those of you that don't know the history, The New Orleans Hornets were forced to sell the franchise due to financial troubles, and so The NBA’s Board of Governors approved an agreement between the owner of the Hornets and the league that allowed the NBA to run the team until a new owner could be found. Back to the Zen Master, one year ago when the NBA took over the franchise, Phil Jackson stated in an interview and I quote..."Who's going to trade who to whom? Who's going to pull the button on trading player or when Chris [Paul] says he has to be traded? How's that going to go? I don't know. Somebody's going to have to make a very nonjudgmental decision on that part that's not going to irritate anybody else in this league...I don't know how they're going to do that." And wow was he correct...There was a 3-team deal that was supposed to down last night sending Chris Paul to the Lakers, Lamar Odom, Kevin Martin, Luis Scola, and Goran Dragic to the Hornets, and Paul Gasol to the Rockets. David Stern put a stop to the trade, shell-shocking all three teams and all players involved. He claims the trade was stopped for "basketball reasons", but many speculate that other owners told Stern not to approve the deal. They think Stern forced them to make a Labor Agreement they didn't want, so he owed them this one. There's no doubt he's gonna have to speak to the media on this issue. The real question is why would Stern do this to a low market team like the Hornets? Their star player Chris Paul is in his last year of his contract, and says he will not sign with them next year, forcing them to make business decisions before he departs. They make an outstanding trade, just for it to get shut down by the league. Now where does that leave all the players that were involved? Lakers players Gasol and Odom have to go back to a team that they know just kicked them out the door?? Hows that gonna sit? This just looks really bad for the league at the end of the day, but on the good side we are talking about the NBA again...Rumor has it that David Stern maybe out the door as Commissioner in the near future... #NBAISBACK and so is the NBA Outsider Perspective!