Talking Points: NBA did Lakers favor

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So, what NBA news could possibly be bigger than the Lakers acquiring Chris Paul via a three-team trade Thursday? Easy, the NBA nixing that very deal.

In a “Dewey Defeats Truman” moment, in which all the major sports sites reported the blockbuster trade, it came out that the league caved to the owners’ furious reaction to the deal, and killed it.

It appears that after a nearly five-month lockout focused around competitive balance, the owners didn’t want to see a trade go through that contradicted that very principle. The thing is — the Lakers might be the biggest beneficiaries of all.

As delectable as putting Paul in the purple and gold seems on paper, losing Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom, who were part of the initial deal, would have hurt Los Angeles more than it would have helped. Talk to most coaches around the league, they’ll say that what has made the Lakers truly formidable is their length.

Would it have been fun to see this deal go through? Yes. But it wouldn’t have had as much influence as people think.

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Sad news came Thursday when former Washington State linebacker Lew Bush died of an apparent heart attack at the age of 42.

Stranger news is that Bush became the seventh member of the 1994 San Diego Chargers team that played in the Super Bowl to die.

Defensive tackle Shawn Lee died of a heart attack in North Carolina in February at age 44.

Linebacker David Griggs was killed in a Florida car crash in 1995. Running back Rodney Culver was killed on May 11, 1996, when ValuJet Flight 592 plunged into the Florida Everglades.

Linebacker Doug Miller, 28, was killed by two lightning strikes while camping in Colorado 1998. Center Curtis Whitley, 39, died of a drug overdose in 2008. Defensive lineman Chris Mims was 38 when he died in 2008 of an enlarged heart.