Gilbert pointed out that the trade would net the Lakers the best player in the deal and save them $40 million in salary and luxury taxes over the next three seasons. But this is not what would've happened. It was widely known that Paul, after a six-month waiting period instituted in the new CBA, would sign a new five-year, $100 million contract with the Lakers after opting onut of his contract on July 1. And the Lakers, who'd be bereft of big men after seding
Pau Gasol to the Rockets and
Lamar Odom to the Hornets, would need to spend more to replace that size or risk having
Kobe Bryant keel over in frustration while Paul futilely dribbled in circles with nobody to receive his magical passes.
...
But something bigger than that happened Thursday. The NBA became the place where conspiracy theories and frozen envelopes and suspicious whistles are no longer the stuff of overactive imaginations or the objects of cold stares from company men. It all came home to roost with this decision from Stern Thursday night, a fine way to take something that was already going to be a struggle -- a lockout-shortened season filled with bad blood and worse basketball -- and turn it into something far worse.
The punchline of a sorry excuse for a joke, under a circus tent growing more inflated by the minute.
