NBA criticized for quashing Chris Paul trade

NBA teams went back to work Friday, which for Chris Paul meant going back to New Orleans. There was disbelief and anger around the league about that -- and a commitment to try again to find him a new home.

Commissioner David Stern killed the Hornets' first attempt to move their All-Star point guard, but general manager Dell Demps is working to put together a new deal. "Yes. People are still calling," Demps said. "People are still calling and we're calling people, so we're confident we can get a deal."

Paul could have been in Los Angeles on Friday, ready to pair up with Kobe Bryant as the next star in Hollywood. That fell apart Thursday when the NBA, which owns the Hornets, rejected an agreed-upon three-team trade for "basketball reasons." The NBA denied that the decision came about because of pressure on Stern from irate owners.

Stern said in a statement that the Hornets are "better served with Chris in a Hornets uniform than by the outcome of the terms of that trade."

Though he nixed the deal, Stern has reason for wanting the same teams to work something out. If not, and another team eventually makes a trade that is approved, it will be difficult to shake the perception that the league was dictating where it wanted Paul to go.

Mavericks owner Mark Cuban told a radio station that the NBA went through the lockout to prevent this very type of deal in which small-market teams lose superstars. A letter from Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert to Stern clearly showed that he, too, objected to the deal. "I just don't see how we can allow this trade to happen," Gilbert wrote in the letter, which was obtained by Yahoo Sports and The New York Times. He added: "I know the vast majority of owners feel the same way that I do.''

So coming out of the lockout and with free agency and training camps opening, instead of the immediate boost the league craved, it found itself with another public relations disaster.

"That's the first thing I thought,'' said Timberwolves player representative Anthony Tolliver. "We just got done arguing for four or five months and everyone just wants to see basketball, and now this. Huge controversy, again with NBA owners. I just hope it doesn't damage everybody.''