Woj lays in out - to Chris Paul following the LeBron/World-wide Wes/ Maverick Carter/ negative influence of the NBA. Paul should have more integrity, honor his contract, and not jump on the LeBron bandwagon. Excellent read.

I think the Knicks should pass on CP3 for now for all of the reasons listed in the other threads and for not encouraging and enhancing these player demands. It is bad for the game.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=aw-paulfuture072310

Paul bends to King James’ rule

By Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo! Sports
Jul 23, 3:49 pm EDT

Chris Paul(notes) had come into the NBA with so much of Kevin Durant’s(notes) pureness of purpose: humble, grateful, still the kid who worked summers pumping gas and changing tires at his grandfather’s gas station in North Carolina. He constructed himself a reputation of values and character, and separated himself in all the best ways.

He should stay on course to be his generation’s Tim Duncan(notes), but that no longer appeals to Paul. He’s veered the wrong way, into the wrong clutches. Bad enough that LeBron James(notes) damaged his own standing in the sport this summer, he wants to take down Chris Paul with him too.

James, his business manager Maverick Carter and powerbroker William Wesley have far too much influence over Paul’s career, and they’re running it right out of the sunshine and into darkness. They’re using Paul as a commodity to elevate their clout, to show how they can take a player with no contractual leverage and muscle him out of New Orleans.

What they don’t care about – and maybe don’t understand – is that Paul built such a beautiful, unique relationship with the city of New Orleans. He’s been so truly invested there, a beacon and ambassador in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Yet, the James gang see these bonds as disposable and they’re convincing Paul of it, too.

In a Twitter pronouncement on Thursday, King James declared, “Best of luck to my brother [Chris Paul] … Do what’s best for You and your family.”

James was referencing Paul’s half-baked trade request that’s come through Worldwide Wes. Do what’s best for your family? Here’s an idea: What Paul ought to do is run away from James, Wesley, Carter and not stop moving until he’s returned to New Orleans and reaffirmed the obligations he’s made there. No, this isn’t a championship team, but a franchise player reveals himself in good times and bad.

What’s best for Paul’s family is best for everyone’s family in the NBA. It needs James to restrict the polluting onto others of his own warped value system. James plays for the Miami Heat, but somehow he wants control of transactions elsewhere, too. He wants the building of these so-called super teams to protect his own legacy, to make it look like he isn’t the only superstar searching for the easy way to championships.

Wesley has been running around for months trying to orchestrate a trade for Paul, and the packages he proposes are beyond comical. He doesn’t even know half the names of players on the rosters. CAA should take a long look in the mirror, and ask itself what kind of outfit it’s turned into with Wes running basketball operations.

Wes is a full-service middleman now: players, coaches and general managers. He has long orchestrated deals for players and coaches, but through CAA he’s also in the GM business now. Worldwide Wes was responsible for Oklahoma City Thunder executive Rich Cho getting hired as the Portland Trail Blazers’ GM. Now, Portland is one more franchise under the impression that Wes can broker a trade for Paul.

Before New Orleans hired Dell Demps as GM, Wes was asking people: Who is that guy? Now, Wesley and CAA will try to overrun the young, inexperienced Demps and coach Monty Williams with a trade demand. CAA does have a list of preferred teams, and Demps’ first act as GM should simply be to take the list and tear it up. Paul has two years left on his contract and no leverage unless the Hornets are foolish enough to relinquish it.

Paul is a first-team All-NBA talent, and you don’t trade those players. All the proposed deals for him bring back the same thing for New Orleans: far less value. Five nickels don’t add up to a quarter in basketball trades.

All this saga promises to do is cast Paul as an insolent star, and James’ group as the ultimate powerbrokers. Paul doesn’t want to hear this, but they’re preying on his insecurities. They’re using him.

In Paul’s earliest days with Team USA, officials preferred Deron Williams(notes) to him because they believed Williams was far more his own man. No one liked the way Paul was so eager to follow James, Carmelo Anthony(notes) and Dwyane Wade(notes). These changes haven’t come overnight with Paul, but over time. James, Carter and Wesley embarked on a long, orchestrated campaign to work Paul over, unfasten him from past loyalties and trusts, and transform him into a creation of their own.

And he’s let them, for no other reason than it seems Chris Paul believes this is somehow the path that will convince people that he belongs with the sport’s biggest stars. He could’ve stayed true to himself and elevated his standing, and now they’re dragging him down with them. Everyone else embraced Paul for an All-American image, for a wholesomeness, and it feels like he’s rejected it all now.

Chris Paul doesn’t need LeBron and Maverick and Wes. They need him. For their operation, Paul represents credibility. He’s always been better than this, and he needs to be again. As much as ever, the NBA needs Chris Paul to be true to his upbringing and character. Commitment always mattered to him, and it still should with the Hornets.

After all this bluster comes and goes this summer, and the Hornets don’t trade him, he still has to return to play there. All his brand new business partners have made that so much harder for him. He saved the NBA in New Orleans, and now it’s time he saves something else before it’s too late. His reputation, his good name.

All the advice that Chris Paul has ever needed out of LeBron James came calling in less than 140 characters on Thursday. Do what’s best for you and your family. Before it’s too late, Chris Paul needs to think for himself and respond with the best move of a brilliant young career: Turn around, go home and leave King James and his court of jesters far, far behind.

Woj is living in the past. The page has already turned and it's a new chapter. Every sport goes thru this kind of major shift and you can't stop something that has been in the works for years now! It's already too late! The players figured out a new way to control their own fate and tho some don't like it they're only trying to do what everyone says is the most important thing... WIN!

Stern and the owners of the over extended league have no interest in seeing super teams. But when the league was smaller that's what you had.
The league wants parity so every owner can continue to stuff their pockets and hold fans hostage with only the illusion of hope to win a title. They know it takes a superteam to win and no loyal superstar can win by himself. Paul has to leave and join another stud or two to win a title. Everyone knows this is true. NO has no shot to win it all before his knees wear out!

So the players are doing what Stern and the owners refuse to do and that is create super teams like there used to be. It's the just about the only way to win a title. Now the PLAYERS have found a way to get it done. We don't have to like it.

Stars have been "demanding" trades from teams not committed to winning since long before Lebron came a long.

I'm no basketball historian but Barley wanting out of Philly comes to mind, but I'm sure there were many, many more before him too.

OK, yeah, you all think it is great for players to demand being traded to be on a winning team. I wonder how you would feel if Gallinari demanded to be traded because the Knicks haven't won in decades. or next year Amar'e? or Anthony Randolph? or whomever your favorite Knicks player is. You're saying you would feel good with having management trade them? and especially knowing that since they went public with their demands and named only a few teams they wanted to go to, that their trade value just shrunk?

I think players should fulfill their contracts just like management has to fulfill theirs! If you want to be traded, do it quietly and not make a spectacle about it.

Does Chris Paul has to stay In New Orleans forever to make Wojo happy? What kind of attitude or expectation is that for fans to have? It's crazy unrealistic.

Teams promise that they'll do everything to provide the player with a chance to win. Many times they either fail or refuse to spend the money to bring in the talent needed to win. So if a player gives his all to win, but the franchise plays cheap and doesn't do everything they can to win, it creates these kinds of situations where a player is unhappy with the support his team is or isn't giving.

In either case the team has the RIGHT not to do a thing until his contract is fulfilled. Nothing has changed. This does put that team in a bad spot when that player DOES have the right to go elsewhere and then the team could be left without any compensation and minus a great player. That's the way things have played out and it's all legal and justified.

NO can simply refuse to work a trade but then they'll have to deal with the repercussions of that decision down the line.

Again, I like the article, thought he was on the money. we are headed down a slippery slope with this mess....

Don't always agree with Wojo but here I get the point. It appears thast CP3 has changed with the LBJ team influence compared to when he signed the Extension. Further, Worldwide Wes sets a bad precident for the league. Players can essentially negotiate through him with other teams while still under contract. The NBA needs a hard cap system like the NFL if it wants to keep the playing field even among teams. Teams should be able to cut guys and take accellerated Cap hits instead of getting roster f....d for years. This will allow for more manueverability by both Owners to compete year to year and will go along with the current maneuvability of Players.

I am not sure what the NBA can do. When the current cba was put into place there were some players who stopped using agents because the amount they could make was already established. You don't hear about guys like Falk brokering trades anymore. I think if a player agent agency is being run or influenced significantly by a current player Stern needs to take action. Players are not allowed ownership rights while they are playing it seems that they should not be allowed to control or significantly influence where other players sign or are traded to. Stern needs to figure out how to stymie this quickly. It isn't right and it isn't good for the game.