WWLTV.com
David Stern figured it was better to wait to release the facts of the eventual trade of All-Star point guard Chris Paul than to do it in bits and pieces.
Two months after consummating the deal between the Hornets and Clippers, Stern told TNT’s David Aldridge that he wishes he would have “spoken up sooner.”
Paul originally was shipped to Los Angeles in a blockbuster trade with the Lakers. But Stern, acting as owner of the Hornets and not commissioner of the NBA, nixed that deal.
Instead, he OK’d a package sending Paul to the Clippers in return for guard Eric Gordon, forward Al-Farouq Aminu and center Chris Kaman along with a first-round pick in this June’s draft.
Since then, the Hornets have attempted to trade Kaman, but they pulled him off the market when they couldn’t agree to terms with any other team.
Stern told Aldridge that they sign off on most things and that won’t change while the NBA finalizes a deal to sell the team and sign a long-term lease with the state.
“It’s not a right of first refusal,” Stern said. “It’s the general manager checking in with the owner on what transactions the team should be making.”
