I’m going to revise my comparison. It’s “I’m sorry you got drunk and crashed your car,” not “I’m sorry you’re ill.” The Hornets got good value for Paul, but the league is paying a serious price in terms of its integrity and it’s going to cause a lot of confusion surrounding any significant trade, and it’s likely to make any team uneasy about dealing with the Hornets.
I do find it odd that the Clippers happened to pull Chauncey Billips out of waivers after he warned everybody not to because he wanted to go to Miami. But then he was okay with playing for the Clippers!
From Adrian WoJo’s column:
This stinks to high heaven.
Full disclosure: die hard Lakers’ fan talking. I also used to be personally acquainted with Stern and thought the world of him.
Gordon Gekko would be proud.
The Clippers are going to be good, which is why he may be OK with it. It was actually a smart move by the Clippers, so I don’t see a reason to get suspicious about the league tipping them off. And they had nothing to lose by making a claim on him. They’re not paying him much, and if he retires, they don’t have to pay him anything.
These two articles sum up how lucky Stern was to escape.