A while ago, I mentioned to a friend that I was surprised that Paul had not asked to be traded with how bad NOH had become, and how little chance they had at getting better. My friend responded that Chris Paul might just have too much class to demand a trade publicly, but that he likely did ask to be traded internally. So, with that in mind, here is what I think happened. 1) Paul quietly asks to be traded and Shinn and his last GM look at trades. 2) Portland talks with NOH and they come close to agreeing on a deal that Shinn wants but the GM does not. 3) Word of the potential trading of Paul leaks and a lot of bad press comes down on Shinn and NOH. 4) Shinn believes that their GM is the one that leaked the potential trade and so they split ways 5) Shinn wants to trade Paul, who has asked for a trade, and whose team is bleeding him dry financially. But there is still a lot of bad press and Shinn is worried that trading Paul (who nobody knows has demanded a trade) will cost him dearly in ticket sales of people who thought he was just too cheap to keep Paul. 6) Shinn asks Paul to leak that he has demanded to be traded so that all the fans will be more understanding once Paul is traded, and hopefully NOH will not lose as many fans. 7) Paul leaks that he has demanded a trade but the press assign teams that they think he would want to go to. 8) Shinn, who already knows that he will likely be traded to the Blazers asks Paul to get a new list out there that includes the trailblazers, so that the Blazers don't get cold feet that Paul will just leave in two years. 9) Paul has his people leak a new list with Portland on it. 10) deal coming soon.
11) Paul Allen sends the Octopus to pick Chris Paul up once the deal is done. He renames his yacht "Paul" after the both of them. 12) They sail back to Portland together, float up the Willamette, and park it right in front of the steel bridge. 13) Brandon, LaMarcus, and Greg are waiting for them to disembark. 14) A red carpet leads from the waterfront up to the Rose Garden where 20,000 fans are waiting inside for the big announcement. 100,000 are waiting along the carpet, throwing streamers. 15) The lockout cancels the entire 2010-11 season.
Number 7 is absolutely true. Oh and fuck the New York media I look forward them to choking again just like they did with LeBron.
I wonder too if perhaps Paul didn't add Portland to the list... but we were added to bump up the offers from the other teams. Seems like we get used like that often.
