Complete Dan Gilbert Letter To NBA About Chris Paul-Lakers Trade

by NowPublic Staff | December 9, 2011 at 07:52 am

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Dan Gilbert Can't Stop Writing Letters. First He Wrote a Comic-Sans Filled Rant About LeBron James. Now He Wrote a Letter That Helped Kill the Chris Paul to Lakers Trade. Here is the Letter

Dan Gilbert of the Cleveland Cavaliers is never shy to put a pen to paper. When LeBron James left the Cavs last summer, he wrote an angry letter to LeBron and published it to the world.

Now Dan Gilbert wrote another letter, one that may have helped nix a trade that would have sent Chris Paul to the Los Angeles Lakers.

The Chris Paul trade, which was made public on December 8, 2011, was a multi-team deal that would have sent Paul to the Lakers, while the Houston Rockets get Pau Gasol, and the Hornets get Lamar Odom, Rockets guards Kevin Martin and Goran Dragic, forward Luis Scola, and a 2012 first-round pick.

Dan Gilbert thought the trade was unfair and wrote about it.

Here is the Dan Gilbert letter about the Chris Paul Trade (try to picture it in Comic Sans):

Commissioner,

It would be a travesty to allow the Lakers to acquire Chris Paul in the apparent trade being discussed.

This trade should go to a vote of the 29 owners of the Hornets.

Over the next three seasons this deal would save the Lakers approximately $20 million in salaries and approximately $21 million in luxury taxes. That $21 million goes to non-taxpaying teams and to fund revenue sharing.

I cannot remember ever seeing a trade where a team got by far the best player in the trade and saved over $40 million in the process. And it doesn’t appear that they would give up any draft picks, which might allow to later make a trade for Dwight Howard. (They would also get a large trade exception that would help them improve their team and/or eventually trade for Howard.) When the Lakers got Pau Gasol (at the time considered an extremely lopsided trade) they took on tens of millions in additional salary and luxury tax and they gave up a number of prospects (one in Marc Gasol who may become a max-salary player).

I just don’t see how we can allow this trade to happen.

I know the vast majority of owners feel the same way that I do.

When will we just change the name of 25 of the 30 teams to the Washington Generals?

Please advise….