Gilbert Arenas explains just why Chris Paul to the Lakers fell through, and just how frightening it could have been
Advertisement
Chris Paul is undeniably one of the best ever point guards to ever grace the court. His vision, playmaking, and even scoring, have always been at an elite level. And most of all, his ability to lead players around him has always made him a hot property in the NBA. And that was no different back in 2011.
Back during a time when CP3 was younger and wanted to leave the New Orleans Hornets, the Lakers were very much interested. At the time, with Kobe Bryant at the height of his powers, and Dwight Howard just being brought in, it was starting to look like Paul would be the last piece to a superteam in LA.
Sounds tantalizing, right? So why didn’t it happen?
Well, Gilbert Arenas was there to see it all go down. And in a recent interview, he revealed exactly the reason why it didn’t happen, and how frightening the franchise could’ve been if it did.
Let’s get into it.
Also Read: Steve Nash trolls himself by posting Kobe Bryant posterizing him in hilarious All-Star bid for 2009
“It would have destroyed the league for at least 10 years”: Gilbert Arenas talks what would’ve happened if Chris Paul made it to the Lakers
As we all know, despite the Lakers’ interest, Chris Paul would have to end up moving to the Clippers. Why? Well, over the years, NBA fans have come up with several different conspiracy theories on what was going on behind the scenes. And as we said, Gilbert Arenas recently released his take on the matter too.
Take a look at the clip in the tweet below.
Gilbert Arenas says the NBA vetoed the CP3/Lakers deal because LA would’ve had Kobe, Dwight, CP3 and $24M-$30M in cap space
“It would have destroyed the league for at least 10 years”
(Via No Chill Podcast | h/t @AhnFireDigital )
— NBA Central (@TheNBACentral) September 1, 2021
“So when it got nixed, I’m like “Damn what happened?”. He said it was unfair. He said “What was in the background of all that was Dwight Howard being traded for Bynum.”
Remember, I’m in Orlando. I’m already talking to Otis and it was like “Dwight don’t want to stay”. This was when the amnesty was coming. So Orlando, they’re trying to figure out if they were going to throw me in the deal and force Lakers: if you want Dwight you’re gonna have to take Gilbert’s contract too.
I was probably gonna get amnesty… basically, after all y’all superteam got together, y’all had too much money left. That was the reason it got nixed. So Dan Fagan hit Mark Cuban and did the numbers. It would have destroyed the league for at least 10 years.
So if you went, Dwight went, you guys had 24-30 million dollars left in cap space. So at that time you’re talking about starting price about 12-13 million on a max contract. So you got 3 max players, and you can get 2 more max players.”
Wow.
We won’t lie. Now we regret it that much more, that this incredible team-up never happened.
Also Read: Steve Kerr recalls how Bulls legend called his own number and threw it down on Dan Majerle
