NBA legend Chris Paul recalled during a recent media appearance that he talked on the phone with fellow NBA icon Kobe Bryant when he was nearly traded to the Los Angeles Lakers back in 2011.
“It was very, very wild to say the least,” Paul said. “It was crazy times. Our team, at the time, was owned by the league, right? The league owned our team. We had just came out of CBA negotiations. And it’s a lot of stories that’s been out there now where people say, ‘This is what happened. This is what happened.’
“I remember where I was, and me and Kobe had actually got on the phone and talked that night, and then, yeah, it was basically like a little s—storm from there. It was a crazy time. It was a crazy time, and just knowing the emotional roller coaster that it was at the time was really different. But I got the phone call basically that this trade ain’t happening no more.”
The trade would have completely shaken up the NBA, as Paul was one of the best players in the league at the time. In the proposed deal, Paul would have gone to the Lakers while star big man Pau Gasol would’ve been traded from L.A. to the Houston Rockets.
The then-New Orleans Hornets were expected to land Kevin Martin, Luis Scola, Lamar Odom, Goran Dragic and a 2012 first-round pick that Houston had acquired in a deal with the New York Knicks.
Instead, the deal fell through, and Paul never ended up playing in Los Angeles for the Lakers.
It’s interesting that Bryant and Paul connected, and it seems like Paul thought that he was going to be in Los Angeles before the “emotional roller coaster” ensued that ended with the deal being called off.
The Lakers ended up losing in the Western Conference semifinals in the 2011-12 season, and they were then eliminated in the first round of the playoffs in the 2012-13 campaign.
Perhaps in part because the Paul trade didn’t go through, the Lakers ended up hitting a rough patch after the 2012-13 season and didn’t make the playoffs again until star forward LeBron James led them to an NBA title in the 2019-20 season.
It’s unfortunate that Bryant didn’t get a chance to play with Paul and potentially chase another title in his storied career, but the Lakers legend still ended up with five rings and two NBA Finals MVPs.
Paul eventually made the NBA Finals in the 2020-21 season with the Phoenix Suns, but the Milwaukee Bucks beat the star guard and his squad in six games. The vetoed trade to the Lakers certainly would have changed Paul’s career path, and it would have given him a chance to play alongside one of the best winners in NBA history.
