By: Julio Olmo
From Super Star to an afterthought and…Now Dwight Howard is on the move once again…How the mighty have fallen!
The Dwight Howard problem started just about the time when he left the friendly confines of the Orlando Magic before the 2012 NBA season began.
“…I’m a part of the Orlando Magic and I plan to be here” “…That’s the only thing that I want to happen: just to have the city behind me and the support of our fans…I’m not trying to run behind anybody like Shaq (Shaquille O’Neil) did…”, Dwight Howard
Then shortly after!
Howard proceeded to lay the lumber on the Orlando Magic franchise!
- Dwight Howard got the Magic’s Head Coach and their General Manager fired.
- He talked bad – publicly! – about his teammates
- Two faced the fans, which included a “No Show” at a basketball camp bearing his name after parents paid $200 per child.
- Accused management of negotiating in bad faith.
- Saddle Orlando with the guarantee contracts of players HE! will only agree to play with. Thus making a multi team deal a necessity back then for the Orlando Magic. Multiple teams had to be involved in his trade so one of them could pick up some of the burden of those guarantee contracts, plus the Magic tried frantically to get maximum value on his trade because they knew that once he was gone…they would be in for a world of hurt – The Orlando Magic is still trying to recover from the devastation!
- He played long enough that season and made certain the Magic made the playoffs which also meant they were not be able to get a high draft choice for two or three years.
- When he was finally traded, he left them scrambling to find a new face for the franchise while at the same time breaking in a new GM and a new Head Coach.
I haven’t seen any individual intentionally put the screws to a whole city and its’ fans like that since Robert Irsay snuck out of Baltimore in the middle of the night with the Colts.
“My life got so complicated…One thing I’ve learned is that eventually , what you do off the court will affect what you do on the court.”, Dwight Howard
“Why did you leave Orlando? You had everything you wanted.” , Orlando Sentinel – David Whitley
Karma is a bitch, Ain’t it!
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