Dwight Howard and His Merry Band of Clowns
So how does Dwight Howard fare? Well, once again he is the King in his court of jesters
At 1 minute past the trade deadline this past day, the Los Angeles Lakers officially became characters in Dwight Howard’s ongoing comedy saga. With the failure to trade Howard this half season, the Lakers are now in the same preposterous position the Orlando Magic were last season; in the big ugly palms of Dwight Howard.
Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak has spent the better part of the last few weeks steadfastly denying the Lakers would even consider trading Howard. They were but thinly veiled proclamations of stubbornness that disguised the fact that these orders most probably came down from Lakers Executive VP Jim Buss; the son of the late, great Dr. Jerry Buss. Jim was the architect of the Lakers traumatic early season changes that included coaching changes, the non-hiring of Phil Jackson and the trade of Howard to a ‘see how it goes but we really want you to sign long term’ deal.
The season of course, has been a disaster for the Lakers and while much can be said about its sputtering futility, this trade deadline debacle is just another boneheaded non-move by Jim Buss more concerned about covering his own ass than giving Lakers fan all they care about: winning now.
So how does Dwight Howard fare? Well, once again he is the King in his court of jesters, ruling the roost of buffoons too blind to see that it is just plain bad, bad business to let him run the organization. And let’s face it, from now until the end of the season, he runs the Lakers.
Many trade analysts and pundits postulated the merits of a Dwight to Brooklyn trade and it all made perfect sense. In return, the Lakers would receive Brook Lopez who is a far better fit alongside Kobe than Dwight is. At the moment, Dwight’s point production is actually lower than Brook’s (16ppg to Lopez’s 18.8ppg) and while Howard at his best is a defensive beast, Lopez’s game is far better suited to Kobe’s “me-first, win-at-all-cost” attitude. So why didn’t it happen? Because it makes too much sense and because Jim Buss is too stubborn to give up his grand plan of having Howard as the Lakers’ future centerpiece. The only problem? It is a future that clearly won’t start until Kobe hangs up his sneakers, which is, two, three years away at the very least? And if he’s got the same kind of fire Michael Jordan had, he’ll never want to walk away from the game. Did we somehow forget that Kobe is still one of the best players in the league today?
The Lakers will spend the rest of the season trying to please Howard, hoping he’ll resign a long term contract at season’s end. But he dislikes Kobe and hates Mike D’Antoni’s system, and if nothing changes, Howard will walk and will likely sign big money deals with teams that can afford him, like Dallas or Houston. Will they have to fire D’Antoni? Trade Pau? Make Steve Nash play soccer? I’m sure if Howard could fire Kobe, he would. Once again, a player has a franchise (the Lakers of all teams) in the palm of his hands. No surprise the player is the same one who sank the Magic last year.
This is not good for the NBA. A franchise should always be bigger than its players, and yet over the last few years, we have learned that in the case of David Stern’s modern NBA, this is not to be.
Jerry Buss was a visionary; he brought the Lakers and all of Showtime to the world and turned a ramshackle team (Buss bought the team, along with the LA Kings and the old Forum for a measly $67.5 million back in 1979) into one of sports’ most valuable, loved and respected franchises. His son, Jim, is a nitwit; just another jester in Dwight Howard’s Merry Band of Clowns.