The clip above is what the Orlando Magic decided to show in the second quarter of the game against the Houston Rockets when Dwight Howard came to town on Wednesday. It was a short tribute video for all the marvelous years Howard gave to the franchise.
The question is, why in the world would the Magic do this?
Were they really looking to honor and thank Howard for his time with the team? If that was truly what they had in mind, that’s certainly a silly way of showing their appreciation, as the crowd showered the arena with boos through the entire video.
The Magic know that fans in Orlando are going to boo the hell out of Howard until the day he retires. Showing a tribute clip and having the crowd booing it all night is a great way to mock what he did for them (not thank him), and Howard certainly isn’t going to shed any tears over it with the crowd reacting that way. Perhaps the result was the actual intent, in which case, bravo.
Here is a cleaner version of what the tribute video looked like:
For whatever it’s worth, Howard hopes the fans can forgive and move on from what happened, from Josh Robbins of Orlando Sentinel:
Dwight: “Last year it was a little bit fresh for a lot of the Magic fans. They were really upset with how things went down, but at the end of the day, I think time heals all wounds. And even though it’s only been a year, I’ve forgiven the people that I needed to forgive. Hopefully, the fans here will forgive me for how the situation ended. But my love for the city will never change.”
Clearly, Howard has not seen the fans of the Toronto Raptors when Vince Carter comes to town. That’s right: they still boo the man despite the fact that it has been 10 years since he left them via trade.
And when your own teammate thinks you should be booed, game over. Jonathan Feigen of Houston Chronicle quotes Chandler Parsons:
Lifelong Magic fan Chandler Parsons said if he were still a kid in the stands, would boo Dwight Howard tonight, too. (He let T-Mac slide.)
COMEDY FROM ANDREW BOGUT:
With Jordan Crawford visiting Boston for the first time since being traded to the Golden State Warriors earlier in the season, reporters naturally crowded the guard for questions. That’s when funny man Andrew Bogut intervened and whispered a little reminder to his teammate, from Rusty Simmons of San Francisco Chronicle:
With 15 Boston reporters surrounding Jordan Crawford for a pregame interview, Andrew Bogut walked by and whispered, “They didn’t want you.”
Crawford, though, was happy during his time with the Boston Celtics. Baxter Holmes of Boston Globe and Chris Forsberg of ESPN have details:
Jordan Crawford said his time w/ Celtics was a positive for his career: “I miss it, actually. It was home for a minute.”
Jordan Crawford on Boston giving him a chance: “That’s probably the hardest part of leaving, because it really did feel like home a bit.”
CLIP OF THE DAY:
Our friend Nick from Bballbreakdown has a new segment called “Coach’s porn”, and it is absolutely fantastic:
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