10 Greatest NBA What-Ifs in the 2000s

#5 What if Chris Paul's trade to the Lakers wasn't vetoed?

Paul and Bryant were supposed to be teammates

Chris Paul headlined NBA news boards in the summer of 2017 when he teamed up with James Harden on the Houston Rockets. But if things were to go as planned six years earlier, it might have never even happened.

On December 8, 2011, the New Orleans Hornets, Paul's team at the time, agreed to send him to the Los Angeles Lakers, in a three-team trade involving, almost prophetically, the Houston Rockets.

Even though team executives already agreed upon the terms of the deal, the NBA, who owned the team at the time, voided the trade. Commissioner David Stern explained this decision by claiming New Orleans would be better off keeping Paul.

However, only six days later, the Hornets traded Paul to the Los Angeles Clippers instead, for a widely considered smaller price then what they would have got in the original trade.

Both Paul and the Lakers had disappointing seasons following the vetoed trade, and the team's potential to compete with Miami's big-three will forever remain a pipe dream.