Chris Paul’s tenure with the Houston Rockets ended in a bad way when they decided to trade him to the Oklahoma City Thunder. CP3 performed very well with his new squad but it was a shock for him when he was traded to OKC. He has recently revealed that Daryl Morey, the then-Rockets GM, told him he wasn’t going to be traded to that team but things took a different route a couple of weeks later.
After the Paul George trade to the Los Angeles Clippers, Morey assured CP3 he wasn’t going to be dealt to OKC but weeks passed and the player landed at the Chesapeake Energy Arena to play with a group of young players that exceeded the expectations. Still, Paul couldn’t help but feel disappointed when Morey lied to him.
Via Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated:
“My initial reaction?” Paul said with a laugh. “I was shocked. Truth be told, I just talked to Daryl a couple days before the trade and he said he wasn’t going to trade me [to Oklahoma City]. That’s funny because that is going to be the alert that pops up on everybody’s phone because nobody knows that. But what the hell, I just said it.”
Morey declined comment on Paul, saying he was told he wouldn’t be traded to the Thunder, but sources close to the Rockets say Morey told Paul days before the trade there was a “slim chance” he could be dealt to the Thunder and that message may have been misinterpreted.
It’s unclear what really happened between the player and the executive but things didn’t end well between them. Now CP3 is part of the Phoenix Suns while Morey is ready to lead the Philadelphia 76ers to compete in a very complicated Eastern Conference. Morey recently said that he wasn’t going to trade Ben Simmons and recent reports suggest the Sixers have made Simmons available in trade talks.
Knowing this story from Chris Paul, the picture doesn’t look so favorable for Simmons.
