Dwightmare. Dwecision. Whatever you want to call it, it’s officially over.
After various conflicting reports throughout the day that had Dwight Howard flip-flopping back and forth between the Houston Rockets, Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Lakers, the word finally came from the center himself that he has made the decision to go to the Rockets for the next four seasons, joining James Harden and company. Here is the tweet and his exact words:
I’ve decided to become a member of the Houston Rockets. I feel its the best place for me and I am excited (cont) http://t.co/h8WK4yP3zB
— Dwight Howard (@DwightHoward) July 6, 2013
“I’ve decided to become a member of the Houston Rockets. I feel its the best place for me and I am excited about joining the Rockets and I’m looking forward to a great season. I want to thank the fans in Los Angeles and wish them the best.”
Everyone – from fans, writers, teams and players alike – had been holding their breath on what the coveted center would do ever since the beginning of free agency. Where Howard ended up was ultimately going to have a major trickle-down effect on where teams and players would go from there, and the league is now expected to make moves accordingly, based on what went down on Friday.
Not many believed that Howard could move on from such a storied franchise and the extra fifth year they could offer him, but ultimately, playing sidekick to Kobe Bryant for another few seasons and playing under Mike D’Antoni’s system was something he did not want to deal with. Here is how Bryant reacted to the news on instagram:
Kobe also unfollowed Howard on twitter and hashtagged the following words: #vamos #juntos #lakercorazon #vino. A Christmas game between the Rockets and Lakers couldn’t come soon enough.
With Howard out of the picture, the Lakers will now likely hang onto Pau Gasol as their primary big man and rebuild from there.
As for the Rockets, they are still looking to add another significant piece to their puzzle. With reports that Omer Asik may be looking to force a trade out of Houston with the acquisition of Howard, Daryl Morey may look to do a sign-and-trade with the Atlanta Hawks to find a way to acquire forward Josh Smith – one of the selling points the team supposedly made on their initial meeting with Howard.
Here are the reactions of Morey and Chandler Parsons of Howard’s decision:
Welcome to Houston @DwightHoward!!! Years of work by Dwight & Rockets went into this. This team is going to be special.
— Daryl Morey (@dmorey) July 6, 2013
Everybody welcome my boy @DwightHoward to the @HoustonRockets!! #NEWAGE
— Chandler Parsons (@ChandlerParsons) July 6, 2013
Of course, Lakers fans weren’t thrilled with the news and plenty of them took the time to burn Howard’s jersey:
Gosh you’re so smart. You should have your own column man.
It was 2 years ago that Dwight was visiting Manhattan on business, when I tweeted to him to stop by to see the Barclays Center construction in Brooklyn. 1 minute later he responded with a tweet, I’m looking at it now. It became his goal to play with Deron in Brooklyn.
Not understanding why so many media people are surprised by this news. I was one of the first to consistently predict a move to Houston and documented it at least 30 times on Sheridan Hoops during the season, and I gave the reasons why. And I don’t think Howard is as fickle as people make him out to be. He only made one stupid mistake, while on a plane flight back to Orlando. He did that because 1. he feared he would have been traded to the Lakers if he didn’t stay with ORL, 2. He didn’t want to disappoint the fans in ORL and 3. He longed for another deep playoff run, which wouldn’t have happened in New Jersey.
Just because Howard sounds fickle, doesn’t mean much of what he says should have been taken seriously. He kept saying that what he wanted was Happiness, but people just wouldn’t believe him. People kept saying that the 30 million would be a factor. It was a Bogus argument. Howard will be wealthier in Houston, for reasons I explained over and over.