Pau Gasol Dodges Carmelo Anthony Question Only to Praise Chris Paul

Chris Paul is back with the Clippers and is very seriously toying with retirement after this season. So this time makes us wonder about that time he almost suited up for the other LA team. We almost got the Kobe Bryant and Chris Paul team-up that made up more than a few fantasy rosters of the 2010s. But David Stern struck. Instead, Bryant had a reliable squad with Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum. Over a decade later, this what-if still haunts an ex-Laker himself.

Amid Hall of Fame weekend, a common what-if going around was if Carmelo Anthony had joined the Lakers sooner than he had. Especially in the 2010-11 season. The free agency then was wild. LeBron James had announced ‘The Decision’ and created the Miami super team. Amar’e Stoudemire and Carlos Boozer wanted to be part of it. Melo had turned down Dwyane Wade’s offer because he was on the verge of his prime and wasn’t going to be a fourth option.

2011 was interesting for the average Lakers fan. Two blockbuster trades fell through after Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol just led the team to the 2010 championship. Speaking to ESPN, Gasol claimed he tries not to go deep into those what-ifs. “Obviously, again, you can’t really think about who else you would have loved to play with, if you would have had… you know, Melo was also a very strong player at the time, or others.”

Though he says that, he did obviously give thought to the trade that never was. “If things would have worked out better if Chris Paul would have come to the Lakers, you know, what would have happened at that time and point in time, in 2011.”

In 2010, the NBA took control of the New Orleans Hornets, where Chris Paul played. After the 2011 lockout ended, the Lakers traded for CP3. The three-team deal would’ve sent Gasol to the Rockets, and Andrew Bynum, Luis Scala, and Lamar Odom to the Hornets. But David Stern vetoed that deal to apparently keep the Hornets franchise value high enough for a sale.

Before the Doncic-AD trade, this was the wildest free agency moment of the decade. Being part of that gives even Gasol thoughts. And even though he wouldn’t have been part of it if it went through, Gasol imagined what it would’ve been if he and CP3 were part of the Lakers together.

“That summer where that trade… not that mock trade, that actually official trade happened, but it got vetoed by the NBA. So what would have happened? I would have been… I don’t know, different, that’s all. That’s for sure. That’s the only thing that it would have been, it would have been different. It would have been again, better outcomes, but we’ll never know.”

That would’ve been different indeed. Gasol almost sounds like he would’ve preferred Chris Paul over Melo. Because Gasol and CP3 have a unique history underscoring any potential partnership they would’ve had.

Pau Gasol and Chris Paul would’ve been an unlikely duo

The inflated expectations of seeing Chris Paul in Purple & Gold had an anticlimactic ending, and fans wanted to know why. According to insiders, the NBA team owners pressured David Stern to veto the trade. The team owners were ratifying the CBA in New York at the time of the CP3 to Lakers deal. They reportedly felt it was unfair that other teams couldn’t court Paul then.

Within two hours of a ‘Woj bomb’ announcing that the trade was finalized in principle, Adrian Wojnaowski had reported the Stern had axed it. It was whiplash for Lakers fans again when the Nuggets almost sent Carmelo Anthony there in 2011 in exchange for Odom and Bynum. However, the failed Chris Paul deal altered the Lakers’ plans, and they sent Odom to Dallas, and Carmelo Anthony ended up in New York.

In 2012, CP3 chose to go to a team that would help his chances at a championship. So he landed in Los Angeles, but with the Clippers, where he became a pillar of the Lob City era.

During a particularly intense Clippers-Lakers game, 7-foot Pau Gasol did the unthinkable – he patted Chris Paul’s head. That iconic picture with a confused Kobe in the background would make meme history, but lingering grudge for the point guard. Gasol offered a tepid apology, but Paul never really accepted it. “I understand that Gasol is that tall, but don’t do to me what I do to my son,” he said months after the incident.

We never really find out if Gasol and Paul ever hashed it out and laughed about the failed trade. But CP3 is back in LA again, and Clippers nation’s hopes are high. So, some things just work out.

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