Dan Gilbert is back on his internet machine and firing off angry emails, only this one involved far less Comic Sans font than the last one. The Cavs owner sent an email to commissioner David Stern Thursday to protest the Chris Paul to the Lakers trade.
Here’s what he wrote, according to an email obtained by Yahoo! Sports:
Commissioner,
It would be a travesty to allow the Lakers to acquire Chris Paul in the apparent trade being discussed.
This trade should go to a vote of the 29 owners of the Hornets.
Over the next three seasons this deal would save the Lakers approximately $20 million in salaries and approximately $21 million in luxury taxes. That $21 million goes to non-taxpaying teams and to fund revenue sharing.
I cannot remember ever seeing a trade where a team got by far the best player in the trade and saved over $40 million in the process. And it doesn’t appear that they would give up any draft picks, which might allow to later make a trade for Dwight Howard. (They would also get a large trade exception that would help them improve their team and/or eventually trade for Howard.) When the Lakers got Pau Gasol (at the time considered an extremely lopsided trade) they took on tens of millions in additional salary and luxury tax and they gave up a number of prospects (one in Marc Gasol who may become a max-salary player).
I just don’t see how we can allow this trade to happen.
I know the vast majority of owners feel the same way that I do.
When will we just change the name of 25 of the 30 teams to the Washington Generals?
Please advise….
Dan G.
The problem is that the Hornets are owned by the NBA, as Gilbert stated. Trading one of the league’s top players to the one of the league’s top teams is a massive conflict of interest. The point is fair, and it’s quite understandable why the trade wasn’t allowed. But here’s the thing: the NBA should have dictated this well before any trades were discussed. How can you allow full discussions involving Chris Paul, only to pull the plug on a trade once it’s been made? That’s awful business.
Let’s also make sure we don’t take this email as a cue to begin celebrating Dan Gilbert. Remember, this is the same petty man who took a shot at LeBron, hired a legal team to pursue a tampering case against the Heat, and who got into a name-calling spat with a basketball blogger. Real class that Gilbert is, I tell you.
