The Dwight Howard story

The NBA fans may very soon have a new man to hate. Lebron James‘ status as the most hated is in serious jeopardy. Dwight Howard is doing his best to become villainous like LeBron, and could well surpass him. The NBA has never seen someone drag out trade drama for so long. If Dwight Howard keeps dragging this drama out, he’ll soon replace LeBron as the most hated NBA player.

Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic: A dynasty gone wrong!!

We could all smell it from afar. Something had to give. In this most bizzare battle of egos, and all other things that most NBA and sports fans hate the most, Dwight Howard may have had the last say in his tumultuous relationship with the Orlando Magic.

According to  reports surfacing in the US media in the last few days, Dwight Howard has told the Magic he wants to be traded to the Brooklyn Nets, and that will be the only team he will re-sign with. This is not the first such request from the big man. It was in the December of last year that the media went into a frenzy as D12 wanted out, only for him to to pick-up his last year option on his current deal with the Magic after months of wild speculations linking him to the Lakers, the Knicks, the Nets as well as a host of other names.

Howard attributed this opt-in to the loyalty, saying  “I’m very loyal and I’ve always put loyalty above anything.” The Magic went overboard rejoicing the Howard contract extension, and put out special t-shirt to commemorate the event. Now, the t-shirt represents  one of the most dubious decisions in professional sports marketing making the Magic look like utter fools. Neither the Magic nor Howard have come out of this fracas as winners.

IT SHALL NEVER GET OLD.

There is no argument that Dwight Howard is currently the best centre in the game. His reasons for getting disillusioned with the Magic might be vindicated, and everyone sympathizes with him for being at the centre of the mess created by Ottis Smith. In his eight years with the Magic, Howard reached the finals of the NBA only once, in the 2008–09 season. However future success wasn’t part of the script that Howard had expected, due to some dubious decisions from the front office such as not re-signing Hedo Türko?lu, only to trade for him later on a much expensive contract. The Magic signed Rashard Lewis of the Seattle SuperSonics to a six-year league-maximum contract believed to be worth over $110 million, but he was never a player of the caliber to demand a max-contract. His deteriorating play and huge contract didn’t allow them to surround Dwight with more talent. The aging Vince Carter and trades for Gilbert Arenas didn’t help either. These are just highlights of the total mess that the front office created in Orlando.

However, Howard has done everything that one can do to become the bad guy. His comments and attitude were PR disasters. If Lebron’s PR disaster with “The  Decision” can be termed as “bad”, the things that went on in the Magic household were as ugly as they come. Dwight Howard’s “indecision” became the new talk of the town in the NBA. He plotted behind the scenes to get his coach Stan Van Gundy fired, had fights with his team-mates, and always chose the wrong occasions to air his views regarding his future. Being the superstar he is, Howard eventually had his way with the Magic, opting in for another season, and getting former general manager Otis Smith and head coach Stan Van Gundy to part ways with the organization, only to ask for a trade from the new GM who has been on the job for about two weeks. After all the drama of opting-in, reports suggested Dwight had recently told people close to him that he was forced to re-sign with the Magic, and sought the help of the NBPA to find ways to legally void his final year contract in Orlando.

Which jersey will D12 pull on this coming season??

The reports of a fresh trade to the Lakers, the Mavericks or the Nets is now doing the rounds. The Magic will try to extract the most they can in a trade for Howard so they may rebuild the franchise, and the sooner they do the better. Superstars in every sport with their prima donna attitude can create a real stir in the organization if not handled with care. They can easily throw their toys out of the pram, and give a number of people sleepless nights.

Whatever the future holds for Dwight Howard and the Magic, no one will argue that he gave the people of Orlando 7 great years and a really bizarre one. Like Lebron found out, and KG stated before, loyalty can be a tricky thing; to win some, you probably have to lose some. Wherever he goes, he will hope to fulfill his dream of winning an NBA championship even at the cost of becoming Public Enemy No.1 and the team which he opts for will profit from it as well.