The trade deadline passed at 2 p.m. Central and there’s been no word of the Hornets pulling off another deal after the failed Tyson-to-OKC trade. John Reid of the Times-Picayune has reported that New Orleans stood pat. It seems we’ll finish out the season with what we’ve got, and worry about dumping salary this summer.

Really, the past few days have been one big regrettable mess for the Hornets. Al Sidhom sums it up pretty well over at NOLA.com:

This reminds me of when one of my buddies broke up with his girlfriend.

We go out and we all tell him how much better he could do.
How we never really even liked her. “she’s lame”, “boring” and so on and so on.

A week later he gets back together with her, eventually they get married.

We never talk about that night, I am sure we all think about it now and then when with them.

But we NEVER talk about it

I think thats how Jeff Bower feels right now.

The Hornets emerge from the madness with nothing much to show for themselves but a credibility hit. Tyson Chandler won’t have an easy time redevoting himself to a franchise that was so willing to part with him. Chris Paul and David West are obviously glad to have TC back, but they must be questioning the direction of the team when management seemed more concerned with saving money these past few days than keeping a great core intact.

And then there’s all us fans, who never wanted rid of Tyson in the first place and despaired when the trade news broke. Making it worse was the Hornets refusing to admit that the deal was all about the benjamins, instead touting the greatness of Wilcox and Smith and downplaying Tyson’s value to the team.

All that and the Hornets don’t have anything to show for it. We’ve still got the same team we started the week with, still the same salary problems. The only thing different is the trust, or rather the lack of it.

I was reluctant to rejoice last night when I heard the trade had been rescinded and Tyson would remain a Hornet. Surely the Thunder wouldn’t be backing out if they didn’t believe Tyson has some serious health issues, right?

Now, I’m pretty happy. I have no evidence to support this, but I get the feeling OKC balking was more due to cold feet than a medical report. I have a hard time believing that Chandler’s lingering toe injury is really that chronic. To quote Juncti in the comments earlier today:

That doctor having been the one to treat Tyson in the past basically gave (Oklahoma City) an emergency exit. If they had any 2nd thoughts they could just point to the toe and say they didn’t like it.

I mean looking at his blog, he’s running around his house with his kids, he’s fishing and jumping in after fish that almost got away, just went on a vacation including horseback riding, overall doesn’t seem like he’s so injured as to kill a trade.

It should be interesting to see how Tyson recovers from his injuries in the coming weeks, and how he performs upon his return. He said he was aiming to be back within the next three games, but is now planning to take things a little slower and ensure he’s 100 percent healthy before suiting up again.

I’m optimistic he’ll be back doing his thing long before the playoffs.