Howard wants fun, this season’s not fun
by Sam Amick, USA TODAY Sports
HOUSTON – This was a different room in a different city at a different time, but it was the same old All-Star weekend scene for Los Angeles Lakers center Dwight Howard on Friday.
It was déjà vu all over again from last year’s festivities in Orlando, where the then-Magic star was the worst kind of host that the NBA could ever have envisioned – the kind that didn’t want to be there. So there he was at the center of a table inside the Hilton hotel conference room, refusing to discuss his looming free agency, again, being asked about the disappearance of his cheery disposition, again, and being forced to relive what had been a torturous first half to his season – again.
The Howard smile – the one that once shot through television sets all over the globe when he was the dunking Superman in 2008 at the All-Star weekend New Orleans – made a few surprise visits in his latest interrogation session with a few dozen inquiring reporters (and that term is used loosely at this event). But with every question about the Lakers’ demise, the Lakers’ dysfunction, the Lakers’ drama, Howard’s hulking shoulders sagged. His face, and the mood, tightened.
It seemed he didn’t want to be there – again.
“The only thing that matters is the present right now,” Howard said when asked about his free agency. “There’s no need for me to talk about what happens at the end of the season, and there’s no need to go back and forth about it. I just feel like, at the end of the year, that’s when I should have my opportunity to make my own decision. And I shouldn’t be pressured or criticized for waiting until the end of the year. I don’t think it’s fair for my teammates. I don’t think it’s fair for the fans or anybody to be worried about what’s going to happen at the end of the year.”
Where ever have we heard that non-committal stance before?
This Dwight-Mare has gone on so long that the notion of Howard being a productive player and … [For more on Howard is a fun guy who wants fun, this season's not fun, click here.]
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