Want to piss off a Los Angeles Lakers fan? Or perhaps you'd like to make one of them cry, curse loudly or stare blankly into the abyss. Just say these two words:
"Basketball reasons."
Those were the words used to explain the NBA's controversial rationale for nixing a 2012 trade that would've sent Chris Paul to the Lakers, Pau Gasol to the Houston Rockets and Lamar Odom, Luis Scola, Goran Dragic and a 2011 first-round pick to the-then New Orleans Hornets.
As Vice Sports' Bethlehem Shoals explained, then-commissioner David Stern's veto, while stunning in many ways, was in the best interest of a league lacking parity, in the wake of a five-month lockout intended (in part) to curb superstar consolidation:
Anyone can mash together All-Stars and win some games. It's far more difficult to build a team that drums up interest in the sport. This was Stern's vision for the NBA and while he may have all been robbed us of some transcendent basketball in Los Angeles—and been a total assh--e about it—it's hard to argue with the results.
Unless, of course, you're one of countless Lakers fans stil ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NBA
Article written by Josh Martin
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