The on again, off again trade talks surrounding Chris Paul and the Los Angeles Lakers appear to be on again – for now. In fact, the Hornets are willing to engage in trade discussions with anyone who is interested.

Hornets GM Dell Demps would not say specifically if he was talking to the Lakers in hopes of reviving the trade that would have sent Paul to the Lakers but was rejected by the NBA Thursday night.

Before the trade was nixed on Thursday, The Hornets had established the framework of a three-team deal that would have sent Lamar Odom to New Orleans and Pau Gasol to Houston. The deal also would have sent Luis Scola, Kevin Martin and Goran Dragic from the Rockets to New Orleans, along with a 2012 first-round draft choice.

Demps was very clear when he said this situation could have been avoided entirely if only Chris Paul would have sign the extension.

“It would be real easy if Chris signed the extension, but the reality is he didn’t sign the extension, so we have to do everything we can for the organization. I wish he’d stay. I’m not going to lie about it.”

Unfortunately, that isn’t the case.

For now though, the saga continues and we will wait and see if he’s traded after all.

Look out, I’m about to dive into the craziness in the NBA over the last 24 hours.

The Los Angeles Lakers wanted to send Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom packing in a bid to grab star point guard Chris Paul from the New Orleans Hornets. The NBA didn’t allow it.

Kobe Bryant and Chris Paul were almost teammates but the NBA nixed the trade

Say what?

Most of you are aware that I’m not an NBA guy but this is just to difficult to ignore.

Let me ask you all something. Did the NBA learn something from the NFL?

This entire ‘non-trade’ that was nixed by the NBA [or Khloe Kardashian depending on who you ask] reeks of parity much like the NFL. Not sure where I’m going with this? Hear me out.

People wonder how the NFL became so popular, and the biggest answer is a sudden equality spreading throughout the league. Nobody knows which team will win from one week to the next because steps got taken years ago to curtail massive spending from teams like the Dallas Cowboys or New York Giants. Experts refer to it as parity, a system that aims at making every team good enough to compete each year. Given the nail-biting Super Bowls and improbable playoff runs of the last decade, the revenue streaming in for the NFL says it all. It’s the kind of success the NBA hasn’t had since Michael Jordan left and they desperately want to see again. Preventing Chris Paul from heading to L.A. discourages other players from pulling a coup and joining forces like LeBron James and Dwyane Wade did last season. It also grants small market teams a bit of hope for actually competing for championships.

After all of the things that have gone wrong for the NBA over the years and in recent memory, did the NBA get it right this time? This may not be the popular move but for the sake of the NBA and where it stands right now, I think it’s the right one.