Paul once said in an interview: "I was a Lakers player for two hours." Although Paul said it as a joke at the time, if the league hadn't stopped it at that time, Paul would have really They teamed up with Kobe. Why did the league veto the deal at that time? There are several reasons for this. The three-way deal regarding Paul was halted.

On December 9, 2011, a large-scale three-party trade was revealed: the Lakers sent Gasol and Odom, and acquired Paul from the then-Hornets; the Rockets sent Dragic , Scola and Martin and a first-round pick, get Gasol; the Hornets get Dragic, Scola and Martin, as well as the Rockets' first-round pick. Just when the deal was about to be confirmed, David Stern stopped the deal for "basketball reasons." Then Paul was traded to the Clippers on December 15, and the city of Los Angeles was born. Why did the league stop this deal? First, all team owners do not want the Lakers to dominate. At that time, the owner of the Hornets sold the team to the league, so the Hornets were in a state of trusteeship by the league, and the owners of the other 29 teams could participate in the discussion of Paul's trade. At that time, the Lakers were swept by the Mavericks in the 2011 playoffs, Gasol was in decline, and Odom was getting involved with the Kardashian family. There were already signs of "going astray". These two players He is no longer an indispensable figure for the Lakers. But Paul was different. He was the well-deserved No. 1 point guard in the league at the time and one of the top five figures in the league. No one dared to ignore his strength. Kobe was at his peak. He and Paul were both offensive and defensive, and both had almost crazy abilities. The desire to win, the combination of these two people made all teams scared, so the team owners directly refused. David Stern was not willing to see a situation where one company was the only one, and directly vetoed the transaction.

Second, Stern felt that his authority had been challenged. That year was a troubled time for the NBA. The league's lockout had just ended and the situation was in turmoil. When the Lakers and Rockets discussed a deal with Stern, Stern refused. His awareness was that the league had just stabilized and was not suitable for big moves. But the Lakers and Rockets ignored him and directly announced that the deal was concluded. Stern could not accept his authority being challenged, so he directly vetoed the transaction, which was in line with his iron-blooded style. In fact, if the two teams could have calmed things down and negotiated the deal slowly, there might have been a different result.