At this point Chris Paul has got to be feeling like NBA commissioner David Stern just absolutely hates him. Last year Stern pulled the plug on a trade that would of sent Paul to the Lakers, saying it violated league rules. Now as he approaches free agency next week, Paul was about to be thrilled with the possible addition of veteran Kevin Garnett and one of the best coaches in Doc Rivers to the Clippers. But DAMN, Stern did it again. Once again saying those two prospective deals would again violate league rules. Funny how some of these rules are convenient whenever the commissioner wants them to be. Now the Clippers have no choice but to let one of those deals go for now. Read more after the jump.

@IamJOE357

According to ESPN:

The Los Angeles Clippers’ new strategy, in the wake of NBA commissioner David Stern’s public comments Thursday expressing serious misgivings about the legitimacy of the proposed trade of Kevin Garnett and a corresponding transaction that would transport Celtics coach Doc Rivers from Boston to L.A. as a package deal, is to pursue Rivers first and roll the dice on acquiring Garnett and Paul Pierce later, sources told ESPN.

I personally think this is crap for one main reason. According to league rules, teams can not engage in transactions that seem to be contingent on another deal happening. For example, the Clippers and Celtics can not talk about trading Kevin Garnett from Boston to L.A. if it seems that the only way that will happen is if Boston allows the Clippers to talk with Doc Rivers and sign him as their new coach. The reason this is crap is because at the end of the day they are two SEPARATE deals. You can not trade a coach from one team to the other which means the Celtics would basically let Doc Rivers go on his own to the Clippers and the Celtics would get some type of compensation, either money or draft picks. The proposed trade of Kevin Garnett for DeAndre Jordan in itself is a separate player for player trade. Maybe Stern just hates Chris Paul and his commercials with Cliff Paul so much. Or maybe he wanted a better deal on insurance from Cliff and he couldn’t get him a better rate so he took it out on Chris. So for the moment all the Clippers can do is go after Doc Rivers only, and then HOPE that if they can work a deal out with Boston, that then they can go after Garnett in a trade and the league will approve it. Needless to say if all of these transactions go through, it puts the Clippers right up there with Oklahoma City as a favorite in the west next year because if those deals happen it is a no brainer that Chris Paul will return to the Clippers. We shall see how this plays out. See what Stern had to say below.