A look back at the trade that never happened: CP3 to the Los Angeles Lakers

In the NBA, there are many moments where one could ask: What if a currently struggling team managed to acquire that one talented player that their team so desperately needed at the moment? Perhaps they turn a whole 180 degrees and head into glory or they rebuild their franchise around a new face in the wake of the retirement of an older legend. Perhaps they attract another big name to the team and a big three is formed.

For the Los Angeles Lakers, this dream was about to come true. The Lakers were on the verge of acquiring Chris Paul from the New Orleans Hornets in a massive three team trade that would send Pau Gasol to Houston and Lamar Odom to the Hornets. The Lakers would still have Andrew Bynum to lure in Dwight Howard a few months later. All was good and all was great in Los Angeles. 45 minutes later, the whole thing was called off.

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David Stern had vetoed the trade, Odom ,who was hurt by the Lakers abrupt decision to trade the him, would land in Dallas, Gasol would go on to stay with the purple and gold for a few more years but would constantly have his name brought up in trade rumors, and Paul would eventually sign with the other Los Angeles team.

I still remember hearing the news of the trade for the first time in that December of 2011. I was practicing with my basketball team in San Gabriel High School's Matador arena. We were all taking a breather during one of our water breaks when one of our teammates started jumping up and down. He looked up from his phone and told us all that CP3 was coming to Los Angeles. We were all in awe and did not think he was serious, even the coaching staff had to check for themselves. I was ecstatic and could not wait to get my hands on a CP3 jersey, I thought that it was crazy how Mitch Kupchak was even able to pull it off!

When I got home, I took a quick shower and got out to watch the news on live television. What I saw next was not the news that the Lakers were about to turn their upcoming season an entire 180 degrees. Instead, my mood turned a 180 degrees as the words came out of the newscaster's mouth. All I had to hear was the words "David Stern,""veto," and "trade" to get the point.

In all honesty, I did not know that it was even remotely possible for the NBA to veto a trade that clearly gone through with the teams involved and had to do some research, I think that if you are a valid Laker fan, you were probably a bit confused that evening as well and would have looked into the situation immediately.

In turns out that the NBA was serving as the interim owners of the New Orleans Hornets, which gave them the power to veto or call of the trade. Nothing could be done to attempt to piece it back together, the league had said "no" and that was that. I think I speak for most Laker fans when I say that Los Angeles was pretty angry about the whole thing.

One moment everything was looking up and the next it all disappeared, I did not get it at all. Sure, I was sad that the team would be losing two intricate pieces of the '09 and '10 champion teams in Odom and Gasol but the team was struggling and was desperately in need of a point guard moving forward. Paul would have given Lakers that spark, a true point guard who could set an offense up and find his own shot.

Instead Paul would make his way into the Clippers organization where he would help the struggling team become immediate contenders in the playoffs during the coming years. Odom would leave Los Angeles, requesting to be traded to the team that had swept the Lakers in the previous season. He was hurt and his career would never the look the same again. Gasol tried to stay optimistic but his name would never cease to exist in the trading block. Despite Kobe Bryant's efforts in defending his teammate, the media and rumors kept up the trade talks which obvious lowered the veteran forward's confidence in his future with the team moving forward.

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After the veto, the Lakers have been spiraling out of control. Despite obtaining Dwight Howard and Steve Nash, the Lakers would go on to struggle through the 2012-2013 season, hobbled by injuries and bad chemistry within the team. Bryant and Howard did not mesh well and Nash was unable to stay on the floor for the majority of the season. The Lakers were eliminated after the first round by the San Antonio Spurs. The next season was even worse.

The once storied purple and gold franchise would make its way into a season where they would break a franchise record but not in a good way. They would go on to suffer the worst season in its franchise history with a 27-55 record.

What hurts even more is the fact that super teams like the big three in Miami and now the trio in Cleveland that consists of LeBron James, Kevin Love, and Kyrie Irving have been given the nod to go. Why is that? This only leaves an even more sour taste in the mouths of the Los Angeles Lakers fans who had to endure the questions that they keep asking themselves, the "what-ifs" that come up every time the last two seasons are brought up.

Now there would have been a huge chance or possibility that CP3 could not have helped the Lakers lure Howard in or even win a championship. Nobody knows if Bryant and Paul would have meshed the way that the team projected but now nobody would know.

It hurts when "what-if" questions are brought up directly through the result of a team's failure to make the right decisions, but it is even worse when these questions are brought up as a result of the league's failure to allow a perfectly valid trade to go through.