Two seasons ago, a group of Los Angeles Clippers fans rallied outside the Staples Center in hopes of their team acquiring then-free agent LeBron James.(NBA National Basketball Association)
"What do we want? LeBron James," they chanted before a Los Angeles Lakers playoff game. "When do we want him? Right now."
Wednesday night, the Clippers finally one-upped their Staples Center rival and got the next best thing available: Chris Paul
The Clippers sent shooting guard Eric Gordon, center Chris Kaman, small forward Al-Farouq Aminu and their unprotected 2012 first-round draft pick to the New Orleans Hornets for Paul and a pair of 2015 second-round picks. The 2012 pick, tied to the performance of the Minnesota Timberwolves, could become the No. 1 overall selection.
The Clippers initially backed off including Gordon (22.3 points a game) and the unprotected draft pick in the deal earlier in the week. But with the Lakers possibly re-entering the picture to court Paul, the Clippers relented.
A three-team deal that would have sent Paul to the Lakers was rejected last week by the NBA, which is operating the Hornets until a buyer can be found to keep the team in New Orleans.
Late Wednesday in a conference call, NBA Commissioner David Stern made his first public comments since nixing the Lakers trade, saying, "I knew that we were doing the best thing for New Orleans. That was my job."
Stern lauded the Clippers deal. "The future of the Hornets is looking better today than it ever has before," he said.
Paul, who will make $16.3 million this season, becomes the franchise's most significant free agent acquisition since relocating to Los Angeles in 1984. He was expected to sign an extension with the Clippers, who would own his Bird rights — which allow a team to sign its own free agents for more money and years than other teams. Under the new collective bargaining agreement, Paul can sign a five-year extension with the Clippers for $100.2 million. If Paul waited to become a free agent at the end of the 2011-12 season, the maximum he could command from another team is $74 million for four years.
The NBA last week rejected Paul's trade to the Lakers because the Hornets would have received Lamar Odom from Los Angeles plus Kevin Martin, Goran Dragic and Luis Scola from the Houston Rockets. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said that trade fell through because the league didn't think it would make the team more attractive to a prospective buyer.
Scola, 31, has three guaranteed years left on his deal worth more than $9 million a season; Martin, 28, is owed $24 million over two years; and Odom, 32, has one year remaining at $8.9 million. Odom eventually ended up with the Mavericks.
In this trade, the Hornets get the youth the NBA wanted with Gordon, 22, who is still on his rookie-scale contract and will make $3.8 million this season, and Aminu, 21, who will make $2.7 million. Kaman, 29, is a 7-footer who gives the Hornets needed size. He'll have his new team's biggest contract at $12.7 million, but this is the last year of his deal.
Both teams come out of this trade looking drastically different. The Hornets have lost their two best players in All-Stars Paul and free agent power forward David West (Indiana Pacers), from a team that made the playoffs last season at 46-36 and pushed the Lakers to six games in their first-round Western Conference series.
The Clippers went 32-50 and have qualified for the postseason twice since the 1993-94 season. But they finally have another superstar to play with power forward Blake Griffin, the reigning rookie of the year.
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