As early as the spring of 20 10, Hornets owner George Shinn began to peddle the team. Larry Ellision, the boss of Oracle Bone Inscriptions Company, has always dreamed of owning a sports team. Last year, he failed in bidding for the Warriors. Ellison bid 350 million this time, bent on winning the Hornets.
Larry Ellision, the boss of Oracle Bone Inscriptions Company.
But there are rumors that Stern Ellison wants to move the team to San Jose, California.
Stern must remember how much chaos the Sonics caused when they moved to Oklahoma City in 2008. He doesn't want to see similar things happen again. Not only that, if Ellison really moves his team to San Jose, there will be five teams in California: Lakers, Clippers, Warriors, Kings and Hornets!
As early as 2006, the owners of eight small clubs signed a letter to Stern, urging the league to solve the problem of widening business gap between big city teams and small city teams. If the Hornets move to California again, it will undoubtedly run counter to Stern's "more balanced alliance". In any case, he can't let Ellison succeed.
20 10 12, the wasp has been peddled for half a year, but there is still no local buyer in New Orleans, so the alliance has to make its own move and spend $300 million to buy the wasp from George Shinn. The alliance will be responsible for the operation of the wasp until a new buyer is found.
20 1 1 In the summer, after being eliminated by the Lakers in the first round, Paul repeatedly claimed to be traded and named new york or LA.
On the other hand, the Lakers who crossed the Hornets were swept by the Dallas Mavericks in the second round. Miami Heat, the opponent of the Mavericks finals, is the first super team composed of star players spontaneously. Although they lost in the finals, everyone can see that they will become the strongest force in the league in the next few years.
The Lakers know that reinforcement is imperative. At this time, Paul, who had just scored 22 points and averaged 1 1.5 assists in the first round, was asking for a trade. He named the big city. It is impossible for the Lakers not to take action.
Soon, Kupchak drew up a tripartite deal between Rockets general manager Morey and Hornets general manager Dale Depps. The Lakers sent Gasol to the Rockets, Odom to the Hornets and got chris paul. The Rockets sent off Scola, Drazic, Kevin Martin and the Hornets at 20 12 in the first round and got Pau Gasol.
Mitch Kupchak, then general manager of the Lakers.
201165438+February 8, everything happened on this day.
At two o'clock in the afternoon, the three general managers have reached an agreement on this transaction, and this big transaction that shocked the basketball world began to be reported by major media.
At the same time, steven smith, the host of ESPN, had a telephone interview with Odom. I can hear that the sensitive Odom was deeply hurt by this transaction. In the ten-minute interview, he kept repeating in tears that Los Angeles is his home, and he couldn't imagine the day when he left the Lakers.
It's really embarrassing to listen to this interview. Odom is like an innocent little girl. After being dumped by her boyfriend, she began to doubt herself and reviewed whether she had done something wrong over and over again. "Maybe I shouldn't shoot the reality show. It may have affected the team. I don't know. At the press conference where the league awarded me the best sixth man, I saw that some members of our coaching staff were absent. I have no idea. "
Gao Fushuai has no time to pity the old love he just abandoned, so he will take a shower, change clothes and meet the new love. However, Kupchak ignored that he was facing the most special team in NBA history. Legally speaking, its ownership is enjoyed by the owners of the other 29 teams, which is naturally unprecedented and unprecedented.
Let's pause for a moment and feel the state of "league trusteeship", which means that the Hornets' decision should be made according to the interests of the other 29 competing teams. Think about it a little and you will know how ridiculous it is.
The league has been hosting the Hornets for a whole year, and no one will tell you what to do in the usual small-scale operation, but it is difficult to guarantee that no one will jump out when it comes to the key moment of trading the team's top card.
It was none other than dan gilbert, the knight boss who had just been dumped by another goddess, lebron james.
Knight boss dan gilbert
For dan gilbert, destroying the deal has two meanings: preventing superstars from forming super teams; Stop the loss of small club stars to big cities. Although the deal had nothing to do with him, dan gilbert should have been the most hated person in the league at that time-the pain of James' "decision" last summer is still in his heart.
Dan gilbert is probably the most popular e-mail boss in NBA. Last year, when James left the Cavaliers, he wrote an open letter to Cleveland fans, and his anger index reached a record level. There is not a dirty word in the whole article, and you can read "Fuck you" hidden between the lines.
When he learned that another Gao Fushuai was going to take away the goddess of the small ball club, Gilbert's painful memories came to mind, picked up the keyboard and wrote another email, this time to Stern.
In this email, Gilbert complained that the deal was "cheating" and that the Lakers' luxury tax of more than 20 million yuan saved by the exchange "should have been used as the income of the non-tax team". If the league doesn't interfere, "25 of our 30 teams will simply play exhibition games."
Due to limited space, the mail will not be posted. Interested friends can reply to the "email" of the "Blind Ball Conference" on the official WeChat account to get the full text in Chinese and English. This is a small advertisement. Don't be surprised:)
This email can be described as a direct attack on Stern's weakness. Always said that "all teams in the league should be balanced and competitive", Stern was pointed at the nose and asked. Is this what you call balance? Is that what you said, keeping the ball competitive?
It is hard to say how much Gilbert's forced palace played in the cancellation of the transaction, but at 9 o'clock that night, Stern suddenly issued a statement: the three-way transaction between the Lakers, Hornets and Rockets was stopped for some "basketball reasons".
The basketball circle, which was just shocked by the deal a few hours ago, was dumbfounded again.
Everything that followed was a mess. Kupchak has no face to Odom, who is loyal to him. He had to rush him to Dallas Mavericks three days later in exchange for a special deal that didn't come in handy. Four days later, the league agreed to a deal between the Hornets and the Clippers to send Paul to another Los Angeles team. The chips offered by the Clippers (eric gordon, chris kaman and aminu in the first round) were not significantly better than the Lakers' previous offer.
You can blame Gilbert for meddling and harming others and yourself; Stern can also be accused of being arbitrary and stubbornly maintaining the unattainable vision of "alliance balance"; You can also blame Kupchak for his thoughtlessness and forgetting to evaluate the alliance's wishes during the transaction negotiation.
In a word, the particularity of wasp ownership, the formation of the Heat Big Three the year before last, and the uneven development of large and small clubs in the league have formed a joint force, which has stifled this big deal that could have changed the history of NBA.
Everyone knows what happened afterwards. The Lakers still got Howard after a season, but Kobe tore his achilles tendon, and Howard left after a season, and the Lakers entered a long reconstruction period. Paul's joining did greatly improve the Clippers' record, but due to bad luck or injury, he was unable to break through the second round of the playoffs until he was traded to the Rockets this summer.
Six years later, only Lakers fans are still looking for answers in the 2K games again and again. If the two halls of fame can join hands in the backcourt, what will their careers look like?