All-Star Weekend in the Land of 1,000 Theme Parks, or be careful what you wish for, is upon us.
As David Stern noted recently, the All-Star Game will withstand anything Dwight Howard has to say about bailing on the Magic and the host city, Orlando.
“We’ll have the usual media experiences like the one I’m enduring now,” said Stern, “but the great thing is the game is going to start and then there’s going to be all this spectacular basketball playing, and all these stars are going to take center court.”
Of course, that’s a great cable rating he’s talking about, but it’s true, they’ll get the game in, even if they have to endure the media experience, focused like a laser on Howard’s plans to leave.
Fortunately, the Magic has had a plan in place to re-sign Howard all along.
Fortunately or not, this weekend is part of it!
If the plan looks dubious to outsiders and some key insiders—like Dwight and his agent, Dan Fegan—the Magic wants to keep him this season, play well enough to show him it’s the best place for him long-term and impress him with the All-Star gala it puts on around him in its new arena.
Amazingly, as for playing well enough… check.
At 21-12, the Magic are No. 3 in the East. That’s despite a two-week spinout at the end of January when they lost six of eight… and Howard asking to be traded before the season… and Fegan getting permission to talk to the Nets, Mavericks and Lakers… and Dwight demanding the ball in crunch time—after a win in Milwaukee, where teammates Jason Richardson and Hedo Turkoglu scored all the points at the end.
“Coach just needs to have confidence in me,” quoth Dwight. “… As a kid, that’s what you dream about in the NBA, taking that shot. I want to do that….
“Ride my back. I’ll lead. I don’t care if I miss every single shot, I’m going to continue to play hard. Just get on my back. That’s why they call me Superman.”
Of course, Superman is only making 49.3 percent of his free throws.
In other words, they could stop the coach of the year competition right now and give the trophy to Stan Van Gundy, for this season and each of the preceding five when the 40-42 team he took over won 50-plus games, reaching one NBA Finals and two East Finals—with his star, whose repertoire consisted of dunks when Van Gundy got there–bitching about him all the way, mostly but not entirely in private.
If Van Gundy was hard on Howard, and Dwight didn’t like it, the real problem was upstairs where management was giving Rashard Lewis $118 million, letting Turkoglu go when he asked for $9 million a year, acquiring Vince Carter who made $16 million, before bringing back Turkoglu at $11 million a year to dump Carter.
Never mind, it’s time to blow Dwight away with their All-Star gala!
Of course, any event that brings the national press to town is a mixed blessing.
Trust me, no one is going to write, “Remember when they put Disney World here because land was cheap and the city was more like a bedroom community for the theme park with more IHOPs, Bob’s Big Boys and Hojos than you could count?
“Look at them now! What a great new arena! What a dynamic franchise!”
It will be more in the vein of Phil Jackson, then in Chicago, in the ‘90s when the Bulls and Magic became rivals: “If you want a plastic city like Orlando that has warm weather and golf courses, that’s fine.”
Of course, M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E lines will give way to whatever Howard says in Friday’s media sessions, when he’ll take questions on whatever they feel like asking.
This can proceed politely, if Dwight doesn’t feel like being the center of a storm, or farcically, as in Phoenix when the long-awaited weekend arrived, inconveniently enough, in 2009, with the Suns swooning and Bob Sarver calling other owners, trying to get expiring contracts and draft picks for Amare Stoudemire.
Rather than duck the media, Amare showed up, had a ball and shifted the embarrassment to Sarver.
“What’s going on at Stoudemire’s table?” Amare asked, approaching the sweating, microphone-proffering media horde that surrounded it.
“Cocktails on me?”
Asked the inevitable question about being caught in the middle, he exclaimed:
“In the middle, are you kidding me? I’m on top! I’m totally in the loop on what’s going on.
“They’re saying it’s a financial decision, it’s hard for them to afford all our players.
“Everyone is on the trading block according to them. I don’t know if they’re giving up on the season or we’re trying to win a championship here.”
Sixteen months later, after making the 2010 West Finals, Sarver would did a 180, trying to re-sign Stoudemire.
Actually, it was more like 179 degrees. Sarver offered four guaranteed seasons to the Knicks’ five, and there went the neighborhood in Phoenix.
Happily for the Magic, Howard is usually well-rehearsed enough to handle questions gracefully–“This isn’t the time to talk about that, I love the town, the fans and the team, I hope to stay”—if not candidly.
Bottom line: In spite of the 1,000,000 rumors you’ll hear this weekend, insiders don’t expect the Magic to trade Howard during the season.
Nor will the Nets trade Deron Williams.
We have to wait and see about the Lakers and Pau Gasol, with his teammates trying to get management to pull the trigger, or tell Pau he’s staying, as if that will reassure anyone.
In any case, as galas go, this may not be the way the Magic envisioned it.
Mark Heisler is a regular contributor to SheridanHoops, LakersNation and the Old Gray Lady. His columns and power rankings appear here each Wednesday. Follow him on Twitter.
Actually i believe Phil was the coach of the lakers at that time when both Orlando and Chicago were vying for Tracy McGrady and Grant hill as the prized free agents. Phil was asked his opinion of where TMac should go.