The Los Angeles Lakers abruptly withdrew from the Chris Paul sweepstakes Saturday night after more than 24 hours of unsuccessful attempts to restructure a three-team deal with the New Orleans Hornets and Houston Rockets that would meet with the approval of NBA commissioner David Stern, according to sources close to the process. The Lakers informed the league-owned Hornets and the Rockets they were pulling out of the stonewalled deal, sources said, and instead trading Lamar Odom to the Dallas Mavericks. Dallas is able to accommodate Odom's $8.9 million salary without surrendering any prized assets thanks to a new trade exception created through the Mavericks' three-team deal with New York and Washington earlier Saturday that landed Tyson Chandler with the Knicks. read more: http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/nba/...pull-trade-talks-chris-paul-according-sources
Lakers made a second offered on Saturday, but the league rejected it again. Lakers now are hoping CP3 stays and becomes a free agent.