By: Dan Hauser
There
is no doubting that Lebron James has been scrutinized over the last two years.
From his controversial “the decision” special to his telling fans that they
have to “wake up to their lives tomorrow” after being eliminated from the NBA
finals last year, Lebron James has not made many fans outside of South Beach.
This
year however things changed. There was a “passing of the torch” for most hated
player in the NBA by fans. You see last year’s loss in the finals humbled
Lebron and this year he came out a whole new man. He spent the offseason
working on his flaws on and off the court. From working on his low post game to
saying what seemed like all the right things, people couldn’t help but begin to
feel happy for Lebron and feel some vindication for him when the Miami Heat won
the NBA Championship this year.
Enter
Dwight Howard.
While
Lebron was repairing and rehabilitating his image Dwight Howard was essentially
lighting a torch to his. The same fun loving big man who strapped a superman
cape on during a slam dunk contest and used to do impressions of his coach
before games to get a good laugh turned from fan favorite to heel in a very
short amount of time.
He
demanded to be traded, then came out and said he would play out the remainder
of his contract but only if the GM Otis Smith and Coach Stan Van Gundy were
gone. So Magic brass listened and complied. Smith and Van Gundy were out at the
end of the season and in comes new GM Rob Hennigan. However that still wasn’t
good enough to keep Dwight in Orlando so he lines up the teams that he will
play for and demands to be traded to one of them. Only problem is none of those
teams are willing to give up what the Magic want for him. During all this Hennigan
flies out to LA on two separate occasions and tries to talk Howard into signing
long term with the team and both times Howard shakes him off. He went so far as
to say “I will never play for the Orlando Magic again”.
Where
Dwight Howard will end up nobody knows at this point. Could be the Lakers,
could be the Rockets, could be the Nets. It could even be back with the Magic.
There is one thing we do know, and that is Dwight Howard went from Superman to
General Zod.
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