Without any kind of doubt, the Chris Paul trade to the Los Angeles Lakers will forever be one of the greatest ‘what ifs’ in NBA history.
Paul was in his prime physically and would’ve teamed up with Kobe Bryant. Everybody was on board but, since the New Orlean Hornets were owned by the league at the time, then-commissioner David Stern killed the move as he thought it would hurt the league’s competitiveness.
And, while all the fans would’ve loved to see Chris Paul in the purple-and-gold, it’s safe to say that Stern was right. If Paul and Kobe teamed up, it was over.
Former Lakers forward Metta World Peace seems to agree with that statement. In a recent interview, he opened up on how excited they were to have CP3 on board and went on to say that they would have definitely won the NBA Championship:
“Chris Paul is amazing. I was at the LA Clippers gym with Chris, so I said, ‘I can’t wait to see you tomorrow.’ “Yeah we conversing about let’s go, let’s get this ring, and then boom, he’s not there and then I see him in the gym again and he’s like, ‘I guess I just got to kick your a** now.’ (laughs) Chris is incredible, we probably would have won a title for sure,” Metta told Shannon Sharpe, as quoted by Essentially Sports.
The Lakers didn’t get the man they wanted and struggled to go back to contention for years, whereas Chris Paul ended up in Los Angeles but with the Los Angeles Clippers.
Fast-forward to today, and Paul is still looking for his first NBA Championship. Maybe he would’ve had a couple of those already if Stern hadn’t vetoed that trade, and Kobe would’ve tied – or maybe even passed – Michael Jordan in rings.
