When Metta World Peace gives interviews, you don’t always expect comments with serious substance. This is not to say that the forward isn’t knowledgeable, but he’s usually more of an entertainer when questions are asked, and is generally very easygoing when it comes to addressing the media or fans. When he learned that the Los Angeles Lakers used the amnesty provision on him, he got through it by constantly joking about it on Twitter.
World Peace can also be very blunt when a situation calls for it, though, and he explained – very reasonably and accurately – why he knew in his heart that Dwight Howard would not sign with the Lakers long-term. Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News has details:
“I always knew Dwight was going to Houston. Things weren’t clicking,” World Peace said recently at Universal Studios where he filmed a segment with the Hallmark Channel’s “Home and Family slated to air today at 10 a.m. “Once Kobe said he could come back for three years, I knew Dwight was going to Houston.” Why did World Peace think that? “It’s not clicking,” World Peace said. “Nothing’s clicking.”
“It’s not about being the guy,” World Peace said. “It’s about clicking. Dwight never wanted to be the guy. Dwight did have some flaws just like anybody. Everybody has flaws. But Dwight just wanted to be comfortable. He wasn’t comfortable [here]. But once that happened [with Bryant’s comments], I knew Dwight wasn’t coming back. I knew he wasn’t going to come back.”
“He wants to win,” World Peace said. “With [James] Harden and those young boys, he has a chance to ride out the wave and wait for these old boys to get old. Right now, Houston has a good shot to win now. The Lakers are broken up and at some point in time, the young veterans will beat the old veterans. Our team needed to have chemistry right away. We should’ve because we’re all vets. It’s a shame that we didn’t.”
So “not clicking” and “Kobe Bryant coming back for three years” were cited as primary reasons for why he felt that Howard was a goner. At this point, it’s obvious that Howard did not want to be a secondary player next to Bryant for more than a couple of years. The interesting thing here is that World Peace specifically addresses the issue of the center not finding his chemistry with Bryant. If we were to read into “not clicking”, it seems the two – despite saying throughout the season that they had no problems with each other – clearly had a number of issues on the court and it’s easy to see why. Both need their touches, but Bryant was going to win out on that end every time. The guard’s inability to pay attention to detail on the defensive end at times also frustrated Howard quite visibly through much of the season.
It’s also worth noting that World Peace did not believe Howard felt the need to be “the guy” and that he never “felt comfortable”. While it’s hard to believe that he doesn’t want to be “the guy”, he did choose to go to a team with James Harden already in it, which somewhat supports that theory. He also went to a team that is wide-open on offense with one of the better pick-and-roll players in Harden, despite saying Mike D’Antoni’s offense wasn’t a good fit for him. Much of Howard’s logic doesn’t make a whole lot of sense until you take it from World Peace’s point of view, which is that the center really, really did not want to play again with Bryant.
Onto other news from around the league:
Nate Robinson will join the Denver Nuggets for next season, according to Benjamin Hochman of The Denver Post: “Reserve guard Nate Robinson has agreed to sign with the Nuggets for two seasons, a league source confirmed Monday. The source confirmed that the two-year deal is for the bi-annual salary cap exception, which is $4.03 million combined. Robinson, 5-foot-9 and 180 pounds, averaged 13.1 points, 4.4 assists and 24.4 minutes in 82 games last season with the Chicago Bulls. He made 141-of-348 (.405) 3-point attempts last season, which would rank higher than only two Nuggets — Wilson Chandler (.413) and Evan Fournier (.407) — who made more than 50 attempts in 2012-13.”
