The NBA has reached an agreement, in principle, to end the Chris Paul drama. Just ten days and change to the start of the season and CP3 didn’t even know what team he was going to be on. Yes, the Los Angeles Clippers will get to keep Blake Griffin, and still have one of the best point guards in the league.
According to the sources of Yahoo! Sports:
The league-owned New Orleans Hornets will receive guard Eric Gordon, center Chris Kaman, forward Al-Farouq Aminu and the Minnesota Timberwolves’ unprotected 2012 first-round pick in return for Paul.
As part of the deal, Paul has agreed to not opt out of his contract after this season – allowing the Clippers to keep him at least through the 2012-13 season.
If the trade is formally approved, Paul plans to fly to Los Angeles Thursday to be introduced by the Clippers.
Now we just need to get the Dwight Howard situation settled. This deal ends a very embarrassing week for the league when the Hornets, L.A. Lakers and Houston Rockets agreed on a three-team deal to send Paul to the Lakers- only to have NBA commissioner David Stern veto it because rival team owners complained. Cleveland Cavaliers owner Daniel Gilbert was one who whined, and his email to the league office was leaked.
There was an attempt to restructure it, but the Lakers eventually backed out. Paul is still “going going, back back to Cali Cali” as B.I.G. would say, just playing for the Staples Center’s second team; instead of it’s first.
Paul M. Banks is CEO of The Sports Bank.net, an official Google News site generating millions of unique visitors. He’s also a regular contributor to Chicago Now, Walter Football.com, Yardbarker, and Fox Sports
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