Former NBA commissioner David Stern: Dell Demps is a ‘lousy general manager’
When Sports Illustrated profiled former NBA commissioner David Stern, he didn’t hold back on his feelings towards New Orleans Pelicans general manager Dell Demps and the vetoed Chris Paul-to-the-Lakers trade in 2011.
When Demps originally agreed to three-team trade with the Los Angeles Lakers and Houston Rockets which would have sent Chris Paul to the L.A. and netted the then-Hornets three players in Kevin Martin, Luis Scola and Lamar Odom as well as the Knicks’ first-round pick in 2012 that Houston had. Pau Gasol would have gone from the Lakers to the Rockets in the deal.
But after the deal was accepted and reported on publicly, Stern, then the acting owner representative of the Hornets since the team was owned by the league at this point, vetoed the deal.
Paul was eventually traded to the Los Angeles Clippers for Eric Gordon, Al-Farouq Aminu, Chris Kaman and a first-round pick the Hornets ended up using on Austin Rivers. The team also went 21-45 that season and won the NBA lottery with their own pick which the team used to select superstar forward Anthony Davis.
Stern explained his decision in more detail to Sports Illustrated and gave his current thoughts on Demps as well.
“I didn’t do a great job of explaining it at the time,” Stern told the publication in the profile posted Wednesday (Oct. 24). “There was a trade that Dell Demps wanted us to approve and I said heck no, but he had told (Rockets GM) Daryl Morey and (then Lakers GM) Mitch Kupchak he had authority to do it and he didn’t. I said no. We just settled a lockout and you want me to approve a basketball trade?”
He continued: “(Demps) had agreed to (trade Paul to the Lakers for) Kevin Martin and Luis Scola or something, and I said we can do better than that.... And the next trade was (to the Clippers for) Eric Gordon and Al-Farouq Aminu and what we thought was a really great draft pick, the 10th pick, which turned out to be Austin Rivers. At least those three and someone else (center Chris Kaman).
“But Dell Demps is a lousy general manager and none of those players are currently with the team anymore, and he may lose Anthony Davis."
At the time, media outlets reported the general consensus around deal sending Paul to the Lakers was that Demps did the best he could with the ownership situation.
Demps is entering his ninth season as the general manager of the franchise. The team has made the playoffs three times, including last season’s trip to the conference semifinals, and the Pelicans have started the 2018-19 season with a 3-0 mark - the first time they’ve done so since the 2010-11 season when Demps was first hired.
https://www.si.com/nba/2018/10/24/d..._campaign=thecrossover&utm_source=twitter.com
When Sports Illustrated profiled former NBA commissioner David Stern, he didn’t hold back on his feelings towards New Orleans Pelicans general manager Dell Demps and the vetoed Chris Paul-to-the-Lakers trade in 2011.
When Demps originally agreed to three-team trade with the Los Angeles Lakers and Houston Rockets which would have sent Chris Paul to the L.A. and netted the then-Hornets three players in Kevin Martin, Luis Scola and Lamar Odom as well as the Knicks’ first-round pick in 2012 that Houston had. Pau Gasol would have gone from the Lakers to the Rockets in the deal.
But after the deal was accepted and reported on publicly, Stern, then the acting owner representative of the Hornets since the team was owned by the league at this point, vetoed the deal.
Paul was eventually traded to the Los Angeles Clippers for Eric Gordon, Al-Farouq Aminu, Chris Kaman and a first-round pick the Hornets ended up using on Austin Rivers. The team also went 21-45 that season and won the NBA lottery with their own pick which the team used to select superstar forward Anthony Davis.
Stern explained his decision in more detail to Sports Illustrated and gave his current thoughts on Demps as well.
“I didn’t do a great job of explaining it at the time,” Stern told the publication in the profile posted Wednesday (Oct. 24). “There was a trade that Dell Demps wanted us to approve and I said heck no, but he had told (Rockets GM) Daryl Morey and (then Lakers GM) Mitch Kupchak he had authority to do it and he didn’t. I said no. We just settled a lockout and you want me to approve a basketball trade?”
He continued: “(Demps) had agreed to (trade Paul to the Lakers for) Kevin Martin and Luis Scola or something, and I said we can do better than that.... And the next trade was (to the Clippers for) Eric Gordon and Al-Farouq Aminu and what we thought was a really great draft pick, the 10th pick, which turned out to be Austin Rivers. At least those three and someone else (center Chris Kaman).
“But Dell Demps is a lousy general manager and none of those players are currently with the team anymore, and he may lose Anthony Davis."
At the time, media outlets reported the general consensus around deal sending Paul to the Lakers was that Demps did the best he could with the ownership situation.
Demps is entering his ninth season as the general manager of the franchise. The team has made the playoffs three times, including last season’s trip to the conference semifinals, and the Pelicans have started the 2018-19 season with a 3-0 mark - the first time they’ve done so since the 2010-11 season when Demps was first hired.
https://www.si.com/nba/2018/10/24/d..._campaign=thecrossover&utm_source=twitter.com
