It looks like New Orleans Hornets point guard Chris Paul won’t be saying goodbye to the Big Easy just yet.

The much-anticipated deal, for which Paul would be traded to the star-studded Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for Pau Gasol going to Houston and Lamar Odom to New Orleans is off. The Hornets would have received Odom, Rockets guards Kevin Martin and Goran Dragic and forward Luis Scola.

Yahoo! Sports had reported that NBA Commissioner David Stern killed the trade after several owners complained. The site had written that Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban was one of many in the NBA that didn't support the deal.

The NBA denied that owners were behind the squashed deal.

"It's not true that the owners killed the deal, the deal was never discussed at the Board of Governors meeting and the league office declined to make the trade for basketball reasons," said league spokesman Mike Bass.

Earlier Thursday, owners and players ratified a new collective bargaining agreement, the final step necessary to ending the five-month lockout.

BET Sports News - Get the latest news and information about African-Americans in sports including weekly recaps, celebrity news and photos of your favorite Black athletes.