Dwight Howard is truly having a season to forget. Most seem to be calling it a “Dwightmare”, fittingly.
Sadly, most of it is due to off-court issues.
Throughout his career, he was a drama-free, fun and charismatic superstar adored by most around him.
Since the end of last season, however, he has become one of the more unlikable players in the NBA. He has become a walking daytime soap opera due to his much-documented indecision of where he would like to play.
During the process, he expressed a desire to be traded, then went back and forth in regards to what he really wanted before stating that he would opt in for one more season, which would simply start the drama all over again come next season.
His reputation took another major hit Thursday afternoon, when coach Stan Van Gundy – apparently tiring of the drama – shockingly called out his best player, confirming a report that he knew Howard wanted him fired and went as far as to say management notified him of it all.
It brought much negative reaction towards Howard on twitter.
From Shannon J. Owens of Orlando Sentinel: “Here’s a few responses posted by NBA fans and national journalists. Ken Berger, CBS Sports: @KBergCBS “Dwight got cold feet about leaving Orlando because he didn’t want to be LeBron. Instead, evidently, he’s decided to be worse.” Adena Andrews, ESPN: @adena_andrews “With that one video Dwight is on the verge of switching villain roles with LeBron.” Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo! Sports: @WojYahooNBA: “Within Magic, there were doubts whether Howard was too injured to play lately, sources say. Only way to avoid blame for SVG’s firing? Lose.” @InsideHoops: Not that I want him to change jobs, but Stan Van Gundy would be a pretty awesome #NBA TV analyst @teamKB24: Dwight Howard is the Kim Kardashian of NBA.”
It didn’t help that all the turmoil came out on game day, where the Magic likely hoped to exact some revenge against the Knicks, who punk’d them just a week ago.
From Josh Robbins of Orlando Sentinel: “The Magic lost their fifth consecutive game for the first time in Van Gundy’s five-year tenure. Howard struggled on the offensive end, and New York hit a barrage of 3-pointers as the Knicks beat the Magic 96-80 at Amway Center. Just how bad was it? Knicks fans inside the arena cheered “Let’s go Knicks” as the final minute wound down… With the loss, the Magic dropped to sixth place in the Eastern Conference standings. Howard finished with eight points on 4-of-8 shooting. He grabbed eight rebounds. He didn’t score his first points until he recorded an easy dunk with 3.5 seconds remaining in the third period off a pick-and-roll with J.J. Redick to cut the New York lead to 76-61. “We know we’re having a tough stretch,” said Howard, who would not answer questions about his relationship with Van Gundy. “Shots are not falling. Our defense has not been great. But we’ve just got to stick together. We’re going through one of the toughest times in the season right now. There’s a lot going on as a team.”
The timing of Van Gundy’s decision to go public with such a sensitive topic seems curious at best, especially given the team’s recent struggles.
It will certainly cause a divide in the locker room. It’s also difficult to fathom how a player can trust or listen to a coach that threw him under the bus. Howard may have disliked Van Gundy’s tendencies, but trust was likely never an issue, and now the two may have reached a point of no return.
From Brian Schmitz of Orlando Sentinel: “How Stan and Dwight can make this work at this time — during a playoff push and a five-game losing streak — only adds another crazy episode to the Magic reality show this season. Can you really have the drama of a head coach vs. the star player smoldering like a live grenade in the dressing room?… The next question: How can Howard trust management if Van Gundy has been alerted to what might have been private conversations? The Magic rebuilt a relationship to get Howard to stay another year. Now they need to repair any damage to his image after this to land him long term. The locker room is split — some players on Stan’s side, some on Dwight’s. Hedo Turkoglu said he wants to be coached by Van Gundy “forever,” and Ryan Anderson said, “I love Stan. I think he’s a great coach.” Anderson also said, “I won’t lie. It’s frustrating … after all that stuff (Howard’s earlier trade demand).” It’s not right or fair, but Van Gundy will ultimately lose this showdown. After the most extraordinary shootaround media session in team history, Stan broke out in reddish blotches all over his neck and torso. He had to be treated by the team trainer. Hmmm. The Howard hives? You can’t make this stuff up.”
The TNT crew chimed in on the situation and predictably, Shaquille O’Neal disapproved of Van Gundy’s actions.
From Shannon J. Owens of Orlando Sentinel: “O’Neal, who previously called out Stan Van Gundy during their tenure together with the Miami Heat, said Van Gundy’s lost his Orlando Magic team for the rest of the season with comments he called ‘bush league.’ He also supported Dwight Howard’s alleged conversation with Magic management pushing for Stan Van Gundy’s removal.”
The Knicks, for once, were not the subject of drama. Instead, they took advantage of the inner turmoil of the Magic and pounced on them once again to take the season series. They improved to 10-3 under Mike Woodson.
From Howard Beck of The New York Times: “Against that bizarre backdrop, the Knicks rolled to a 96-80 rout that only added to the Magic’s woes. Orlando (32-23) has lost five straight games, a streak that began with a 22-point loss at Madison Square Garden last week, when Howard was seen laughing on the bench. The Knicks, who have had their share of dissension and woe, were happy to capitalize on Orlando’s dysfunction.“Absolutely, you can see it,” Carmelo Anthony said of the Magic. “You still have guys that are going out there playing hard, trying to win the basketball game. But at the end of the day, when there’s a lot of stuff like that that’s surrounding a team off the court, it can be very distracting.” Anthony had 19 points and 8 rebounds in just three quarters. J. R. Smith had 15 points and 9 assists in his best all-around game as a Knick”
Moving on to teams that lead their respective divisions and are more concerned with actual basketball than off-court drama, the Bulls played once again without Derrick Rose as they hosted the Celtics.
Chicago made sure its first losing streak of the season would not extend beyond two games while Boston suffered its second consecutive loss.
From K.C. Johnson of Chicago Tribune: “After a bumbling and misfiring start, the Bulls’ energy and fight returned to help them erase an 11-point halftime deficit and prevail 93-86. “In the first half, we played with our heads down,” Joakim Noah said. “Basketball is a game of momentum. When things aren’t going our way, our mentality has to be, ‘We got to fix this fast.’ We can’t have the poopy face. Sometimes we play with the poopy face… Luol Deng’s season-high 26 points and four steals led a balanced offensive effort and active defensive one that also featured Carlos Boozer’s double-double and Noah’s 17 points, nine rebounds and three blocks.”We let go of the rope,” Rivers said. “This was an unacceptable effort for us. It was a crime. We just thought we were cool. We were the cool Celtics. We were walking the ball around and having trouble getting it in bounds. No one wanted to work. You don’t play basketball like that.”
Elsewhere…
- After suffering a loss to the Lakers that snapped their best winning streak in 20 years, the Clippers got back on track and defeated the Kings, 93-85. Randy Foye scored 20 points while Blake Griffin and Caron Butler chipped in 14 points apiece. Chris Paul had a rare off night, shooting 4-of-16 for 13 points while committing five turnovers despite eight assists. Things got chippy as Griffin and DeMarcus Cousins battled throughout the night, sometimes looking like they were in a WWE match.
- The soon-to-retire Ben Wallace played the final 18 minutes and hit five free throws in a 16-second stretch as he helped the Pistons defeat the Wizards, 99-94. Washington’s John Wall had 28 points and 10 assists, but only four of those points came in the fourth quarter with Wallace patrolling the paint. Greg Monroe led the Pistons with 18 points. Detroit has won three consecutive games while Washington lost for the fourth straight time.
James Park is a regular contributor to Sheridanhoops.com. Follow him on twitter.