Dan Gilbert wasn’t the only owner who supported David Stern’s veto on the deal between the Lakers, Rockets and Hornets previously designed to send Chris Paul to Los Angeles.
His email, seemingly a private one addressed to David Stern, was the only one that leaked publicly but he wasn’t alone in his position.
We can assume that a number of other owners shared similar sentiments, but we don’t have to assume that Dallas Mavericks Owner Mark Cuban was one of them. Cuban said as much on the record this past Friday.
Following reports that Thursday’s proposed trade was nixed by Commissioner David Stern, Cuban offered the following statement in support of Stern’s decision to block the trade in an interview with ESPN Dallas’ 103.3 FM:
“The message is we went through this lockout for a reason,” Cuban said. “Again, I’m not speaking for Stern. He’s not telling me his thought process. I’m just telling you my perspective, having gone through all this. There’s a reason that we went through this lockout, and one of the reasons is to give small-market teams the ability to keep their stars and the ability to compete.”
“Players will always have the right to choose what they want to do as a free agent, but the players agreed to rules that said, ‘You know what? Let’s give the home team, the incumbent team, an extra advantage.’ And that’s how the rules were designed. I think they’re going to work.”
Then on Saturday night Mark Cuban’s Mavericks traded for Lamar Odom, the 6th Man of the Year last season and an integral piece in the proposed Chris Paul trade. [Read more...]
At 2pm yesterday I shifted my attention away from the Cleveland Browns and over to the Cleveland State Vikings on ESPNU. Two hours later, I couldn’t have been more pleased with my decision. All Gary Waters’ team did yesterday was completely dominate the nation’s 7th ranked Vanderbilt Commodores in a wire-to-wire beat-down that was never in question, and I thoroughly enjoyed my afternoon as a result.
