By blocking more than one Chris Paul trade proposal, David Stern and the NBA owners have done more than just annoy CP3. They have strained relationships between a number of players and their ownership groups across the league. Professional athletes know they are part of a business, but that doesn’t make being told to pack your bags any easier — especially when you’re told to pack them and then unpack them within a few hours. As he expressed last week, Lamar Odom was particularly bothered by the Lakers attempt to trade him for Paul. On Tuesday, he said he felt disrespected by the Lakers.
“That’s not where I wanted to be,” Odom said when asked about going to New Orleans according to the Orange County Register. “No disrespect to anybody on that team or the city or the ownership. But it’s not a place that I wanted to be after playing for the Lakers, a team that contends for a championship. That’s what you expect to be around. It was hard for me to picture myself there starting over.
“I felt a little disrespected. After being here for so long and going through so many things, I felt like they could have just told me and I probably would have accepted it. If someone is telling you that you can’t be here or there’s no more room for you, you got to understand that. I think because it’s just how they did it is the reason why I took it so personal.”
The Lakers were obviously looking out for their own interests in not informing Lamar his name was being included in trade discussions. They probably didn’t want to upset him if the trade ended up falling through, but in this age of media and technology there are no secrets. As a result, Odom ended up wanting to be traded and now some of his teammates are upset. Had the initial trade not been blocked, I doubt someone like Kobe Bryant would be upset that the Lakers added CP3. We can all thank David Stern for the confusion. On the bright side, Odom’s new coach is a fan of his wife.
