It's all your fault David Stern (for basketball reasons)

I'm not gonna lie.  As a die hard Lakers fan, I've rooted hard for my team the last 2 years.  But I can't help but think about what could have been.  I remember it clear as day.  I read rumors that a Chris Paul trade to the Lakers was in the works.  This couldn't possibly be true!

The Lakers had won the chip 2 years in a row, but had a down year (by Lakers standards) in 2011.  Lebron had just "taken his talents to South Beath", but lost in the NBA finals to the Dallas Mavericks.  The Chris Paul trade was the "big splash" the Lakers were known to make. (Think acquiring Shaq from Orlando)  The Lakers were losing Pau Gasol and Lamar Kardashian, but were able to keep Andrew Bynum.  This would set the stage for a trade for Dwight Howard.  At the time, Bynum was the only player that could have been traded straight up for Howard.

So I'm scrolling down my Twitter timeline and I saw it:
"Lakers acquire point guard Chris Paul in 3 time trade"

I went and put on my Kobe jersey.  I sent text messages to every "Laker hater" that I had encountered over the past 10 years.  I changed my Facebook profile picture to the picture above. I went on ticket master to see if it was too soon to buy Lakers vs Bulls tickets!  So 45 minutes later, one of those "Lakers haters" texted me back and said, "ESPN is saying the Chris Paul deal is falling apart".  I laughed it off...this couldn't be true.

Then I saw it:

UPDATE (9:27 p.m. ET): The Chris Paul trade to the Los Angeles Lakers has been killed by the league.

The next day, the only explanation the commissioner gave was...for basketball reasons.

The rest is history.  

• Subpar year with the Gasol and Bynum
• Swept by OKC
• Traded for an injured Dwight Howard (slowly rounded into form and should eventually pay off)
• Traded for a 47 year old Steve Nash
• Mike Brown fired (Good coach, bad fit for the Lakers)
• Phil Jackson passed over for Mike No'defense (still scratching my head over this one)
• Steve Nash breaks his leg (apparently due to old age)
• Have a combined 80+ games missed by key players due to injury (also due to old age)
• Have to fight for a playoff spot with 5 "must win" games to end the season
• Swept by Spurs

AND WORST OF ALL:

Lakers trainer Gary Vitti confirms its a ruptured Achilles tendon and Kobe Bryant will be sidelined 6-9 months.

And for all of this, I blame one man and one man only.

It's all your fault David Stern.