4 Year Anniversary Of Getting Stern'D

Sorry in Advance, but we're coming up on the 4 year anniversary of....



Four years ago, on Dec. 8, 2011, two words altered the course of NBA history: “Basketball reasons.”

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...e-scars-from-the-chris-paul-trade-veto-remain

http://www.foxsports.com/nba/story/...-orleans-hornets-four-year-anniversary-120815

After reading the articles I still feel:

 

Won't surprise if ESPN eventually creates a 30 for 30 on this just to make us loyal Lakers fan feel it once again.

 

On the bright side, every year that goes by this stings a little less. As we start to see our picks from being awful develop, some very nice young players with potential to be very good or great start to show what they've got, the Luke hire, slowly getting out from under the effects of the Nash trade. It stings that Kobe probably would have had one more shot at a title had we gotten Paul and then still gotten Howard like I'm sure they planned, but at the same time those are 2 of my most disliked players in the NBA, so not having to root for them I see as a positive.

As the article points out, Chris Paul for all his greatness still hasn't gotten out of the 2nd round (so while that's success for the Clippers, it's not for the Lakers), and Dwight will never grow up and will never win a thing, so I'm not broken up over this. I'm sure it set us back in signing good free agents, and again like the article says Kobe might ever have ruptured his achilles (but we don't know that for sure), we don't know if he and Kobe could have shared a ball (he and Nash couldn't really), so it is what it is. Eventually I think even had we gotten Paul and Howard together there's no guarantee both or even one of them stayed when their contracts were up, so we'd have had to rebuild post-Kobe anyway.

The way things went down we simply started the rebuild sooner, got some very nice players in the draft, and look to be on the way back up finally, even if slowly. The person this really hurt more than anyone in the long run seems to be Lamar Odom, it's hard for me to get too down on where the Lakers are as a franchise when I see where that man's life went. It's a game in the end, it's entertainment. But all that said, article gets it right even if they didn't put it this way, Stern is a douche, a slimy little rat, and he screwed us. Oh and f*** Dan Gilbert too, I guess superteams are fine as long as it's your franchise.

 

I said it before and I'll say it again...West staring down Stern at Dr. Buss' funeral and stating that the late Laker owner had integrity unlike some. THAT makes me feel better in looking back.

 

I've never wanted to stop being a basketball fan until that moment. The feeling didn't last long, but my disdain for D. Stern is as strong as ever.

 

We were ahead of the curve with all these super teams and got punished for it.

 

Eh. I remember what that veto did to this organization, effecting it negatively in many ways.... but I hate the way Chris Paul plays so much, with the blatant flopping and complaining on every call, that I can't imagine a world where I would root for him.

 

And the fact he has the nerve to sit there and say, "there was no deal, it didn't happen" is an insult to our intelligence as fans. The GM in every organization is responsible for the movement of players to and from the team. The owner in about 90% of cases rubber stamps what the GM comes up with and the team moves forward. Very rarely does the owner get involved in player movement, it's why they hire and empower GMs in the first place.

For him to say the deal never existed because he nixed it and therefore the Lakers and Rockets shouldn't be upset and therefore Laker and Rocket fans shouldn't be upset is lunacy and arrogance combined. He's as bad as any other person in a position of power who spits in the faces of those below him considering himself above our trivial lives.

His actions cost us relevance the last 6 years and we're still a good 5-6 years away from relevance. The league decided it didn't need the Lakers anymore and here we are left to pick up the pieces while horrible people like Dan Gilbert are being given everything that they don't deserve.