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Where Will Dwight Howard Play Next Season?

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  • #31
    Someone end this now please

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    • #32
      NBA: Stern puts up with Howard drama | HOOPSWORLD | Basketball News & NBA Rumors

      And the fun continues today. LOL!

      NBA commissioner David Stern isn’t happy Dwight Howard or agent Dan Fegan have leaked details of meetings with the Orlando Magic brass to media, but he’s willing to live with it, knowing it moves the meter by driving fan and media interest.

      “To me, it is the soap opera our fans turn in for — the drama on the court and the drama off the court,” Stern told USA Today. “When we cease to have a story popping up, we probably won’t exist. I think what it is, is that that’s the way we are. That’s the way it has been in baseball and the NFL and hockey and basketball. And frankly, it engages our fans, it engages our reporters, it engages our bloggers. It makes people happy, mad, sad. It’s just the life of sports.”

      Howard’s very public flip-flopping — trade demands, rescinding those demands and agreeing in February to stay in Orlando for the upcoming season, then demanding a trade again — has kept the Magic and their six-time All-Star center in the headlines.

      On Monday, an “unnamed source” Stern said by process of elimination must be Fegan, informed RealGM.com and ESPN.com that Howard again turned down Magic GM Rob Hennigan and team officials who’d visited him in Los Angeles in hopes of convincing Howard to give the Magic a chance.

      “It’s very unique, especially if it’s driven by a quote source that happens to be Dwight’s agent,” Stern said. “‘A source in the meeting? Oh, OK, who might that be?’”

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      • #33
        Dwight Howard's agent, Dan Fegan, confirms David Stern's accusation - ESPN

        The agent for Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard confirmed NBA commissioner David Stern's accusation that Howard's representatives were the sources that provided details of Wednesday's private meeting in Los Angeles with Magic officials.

        However, the agent said, those representatives did so only after media members were tipped off to the meeting taking place by some other source and out of concern that subsequent reports about the content of the meeting would be inaccurate.

        "It's very unique, especially if it's driven by a quote source that happens to be Dwight's agent," Stern told USA Today. "'A source in the meeting.' Oh, OK, who might that be?"

        Stern reportedly did not believe the leak came from the Magic.

        "No, I don't (think it's GM Rob Hennigan), and I don't think it's (CEO) Alex Martins either," Stern told the newspaper.

        Howard reiterated to Hennigan during the meeting in Los Angeles that he still wants to be traded and will leave as a free agent after next season.

        "On the morning prior to Wednesday's supposedly confidential meeting between Dwight Howard and Rob Hennigan, there were media reports stating a meeting was taking place later that same day," wrote agent Dan Fegan of LaGardere Unlimited in an email. "Prior to the actual meeting, Dwight's business manager and I met with Rob, reminded him that we had not requested the meeting, had been reluctant to take it and were concerned that the Magic had leaked that a meeting was taking place.

        "Both during and after the meeting, we continued to get communications from the media telling us that they had confirmation that the meeting was occurring and/or had taken place. After the meeting, some media requested comments on information they allegedly already had on what had taken place in the meeting. I want to stress that none of the information the reporters had about the meeting at this point came from us.

        "After receiving these media inquiries, I called Rob and left several messages expressing concern that what had occurred in the meeting was not going to be accurately reported -- as had happened on previous occasions -- and that we were going to respond to the media inquiries to make sure that reports were accurate. To a limited extent, that is what we did."

        Wednesday's meeting followed sourced reports earlier in the week that the Magic were prepared to keep Howard on their team next season rather than fulfill his request to be traded. That stance contradicts a statement by Martins, in which he said the franchise would indeed trade Howard if that was his wish.

        Hennigan, while not being that direct, said he will not keep any player who doesn't want to be with the organization. Magic ownership, sources say, are on board with fulfilling Howard's trade request after initially resisting it last season. Howard first made his desire to be traded early last season, and former Magic GM Otis Smith began exploring the team's options.

        Martins, however, stepped in, according to sources, and convinced ownership that he could persuade Howard to change his mind. He did -- at least temporarily.

        On the brink of the March 15 trade deadline, Howard agreed to exercise his player's option for the final year of his contract rather than become an unrestricted free agent this summer. Sourced reports on how Howard came to that decision (including a phone call to owner Rich DeVos during a game before signing the opt-in clause) and his feelings since (that he told friends the Magic "blackmailed" him) have been disputed by both Howard and Fegan.

        Since May, Howard has been consistent in conversations with Martins and now Hennigan that he wants to be traded to the Brooklyn Nets.

        There was a sourced report that Howard had softened his position and that he also would be willing to re-sign if traded to the Lakers, but Fegan responded to that report by saying that Howard would not commit long term to any team, including the Nets, prior to becoming an unrestricted free agent next summer.

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        • #34
          OMG this is never going to end. Please let it end by this Sunday.

          With Dwight Howard reiterating his wish to be traded, multiple league sources believe the Orlando Magic will again step up efforts to find their All-Star center a new team.

          Several of those sources told FOX Sports Ohio on Saturday they believe Howard could be traded by the end of the week.

          via Sam Amico of Fox Sports

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          • #35
            Dwight Howard Cancels Own Basketball Camp Appearance

            Dwight Howard cancels appearance at his own Orlando youth basketball camp | Ball Don't Lie - Yahoo! Sports



            I know he says he is rehabbing from injury, but he is doing so in Los Angeles.

            Good news, everyone: After months and months of stories about how the relationship between All-Star center Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic has become toxic, resulting in strident trade demands, countless rumors that ultimately signified nothing, the wholesale turnover of the Magic's front office and coaching staff, more demands, more rumors and more nothing, we've finally got a positive story about how Howard's relating to fans and supporters in the Orlando area. Finally.

            Hahahahaha, just kidding. Like that could ever happen at this point. If you actually thought that was possible, then as the great Paul F. Tompkins once said, you need to go back to thinking school.

            No, instead, Howard has reportedly canceled an appearance at his own summer basketball camp — a camp he previously pushed back by more than a month — to stay out on the West Coast and leave a slew of Floridian families stewing in their own juices. Because of course he has.

            From Josh Robbins at the Orlando Sentinel:

            An official for ProCamps, which runs the event, said families who paid the camp's $199 registration fee were sent e-mail messages Monday to inform them Howard will remain in southern California in order to continue rehabilitating his back. [...]

            Howard's annual camp originally was scheduled for July 1-2 at UCF, with Howard slated to attend both days. But it was postponed and later rescheduled for Aug. 13-14 at Orlando Volleyball Academy.

            The camp still will be held next week. Andrew Nicholson, the Magic's 2012 first-round draft pick, will take Howard's place.

            Well, at least the youth of Florida will get introduced to Nicholson early, I guess. They'll probably wind up hearing a lot about how important his development to the Magic's return to playoff contention over the next couple of years.

            Howard's SoCal rehabilitation from late-April back surgery — which he told Hoopsworld's Steve Kyler on Sunday is going well, though he's still not close to getting back on the court — has also included a Friday night trip to Dodger Stadium (where he was reportedly booed by Los Angeles Dodgers fans) and an unannounced visit to the adidas Nations basketball camp, where he "gathered ... the college counselors to share his wisdom," according to Charlie Yao of Roundball Mining Company.

            This, of course, is tantamount to blood in the water for Orlando-area columnists like the Sentinel's Mike Bianchi, who's seething at the perceived lack of respect Howard continues to show the city, organization and fans that have supported him for the past eight years:

            I've said it once and I'll say again: It's hard to believe Dwight is physically unable to attend a youth basketball camp, walk around the gym, offer some words of encouragement, take pictures and sign some autographs for the kids.

            Not only has Howard let down his teammates and the City of Orlando, now he has let down many kids, too. [...]

            It seems Dwight Howard is not only doing his best to get traded from Orlando, he's doing his best to be hated in Orlando, too.

            While I wouldn't presume to hold up Bianchi as the official mouthpiece of all Orlando sports fans, you can certainly understand how — after all the hits Magic fans have taken during Howard's endless and endlessly awkward attempt to skip town — it's easy to see bowing out of a camp that bears his name and denying kids the thrill of meeting an NBA All-Star as just another indicator of how little he wants to be in Orlando, another signpost to remind them how little he cares about them. For today, at least, the public faces on this phenomenally failed crash-and-burn exit strategy belong neither to Howard, nor the exiled GM-and-coach tandem of Otis Smith and Stan Van Gundy, nor Orlando's ownership and present management Magic management. They're the faces of disappointed Central Florida children and the parents who have to decide whether to ask for their $200 back or get their kids psyched up to play knockout with Andrew Nicholson. (No offense, Andrew.)

            And frankly, that might be totally unfair to Howard; it's entirely possible that the scratch is legitimate, that both the initial postponement of the camp and this late-stage cancellation result from not wanting to jeopardize the slow progress of his rehab with cross-country travel that might not be absolutely necessary. But at this point, in most fans' eyes, it's become extraordinarily difficult (if not impossible) to give Howard the benefit of the doubt. He's just about totally burned through any line of credit he built up with his play over the years.

            Howard has yet to shed any light on this most recent disappointment — according to Kyler, the center is "not doing interviews and is staying out of the limelight deliberately," and "has a small army of people keeping media out." (Except, apparently, the media member he updated on his rehab progress.)

            That said, it wouldn't be at all surprising to see a statement somehow make a heroic break through that "small army" and into the outside world now that people know Howard's shafting young fans, because this is sort of how the entire "Dwight Howard Wants to Leave Orlando" thing has played out:

            1. Dwight makes a decision or says something privately.

            2. It's then brought to light, which makes everyone mad.

            3. He deflects both the revelation and the backlash, but mildly, in word and deed.

            4. Nobody really buys his deflection, and he becomes vilified for the decision, statement and lukewarm response to the backlash.

            5. He makes a fairly halfhearted attempt to get back into the public's good graces, which, again, nobody really buys.

            6. Return to step 1 and repeat the process.

            It's been pretty ridiculous and painful to watch unfold, and with Howard reportedly still dead-set on leaving the Magic on the next thing smoking, and Orlando reportedly still dead-set on hanging on to him until it can get what it deems to be fair value in exchange for the center's services, the cycle sure doesn't seem likely to end anytime soon. Pitched conflicts between two deeply entrenched sides often have unintended consequences and innocent victims; it just sucks that these ones are kids who just wanted, like, a high-five.

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            • #36
              Sources -- Dwight Howard-to-Los Angeles Lakers four-team deal 'very close' - ESPN

              Gasol better not be included. Makes no sense for Magic to take back Gasol. Stern will need to veto this trade if the stupid trade below is agreed upon.

              A four-team trade that would send Dwight Howard to the Los Angeles Lakers is "very close" to happening and could be agreed upon Friday, league sources told ESPN The Magazine's Chris Broussard.

              In the proposed four-team deal, sources told Broussard that Howard and Denver Nuggets forward Al Harrington would go to Los Angeles, Lakers forward Pau Gasol and Nuggets guard Arron Afflalo would go to the Orlando Magic, Philadelphia 76ers guard Andre Iguodala would go to Denver, and Lakers center Andrew Bynum would go to Philadelphia.

              A league source told ESPNLosAngeles.com's Ramona Shelburne that the pieces in the potential trade are still very fluid and that Gasol has been in and out of the talks. The source, though, said the deal still is very close to happening and could go down Friday morning.

              Earlier Thursday, Yahoo! Sports, citing sources, reported that talks of a four-team trade involving Howard have taken place this week and have "grown serious."

              The proposed scenario also includes the Magic receiving draft picks and salary-cap relief, the sources told Yahoo!

              Sources told Broussard that Philadelphia has not spoken to Bynum or his representatives and has no assurances he will sign a long-term extension with the club.

              "The Sixers are willing to take a shot (without Bynum's commitment)," one source said.

              Although Bynum signing an extension with the 76ers is not out of the question, according to a source, his stance all summer has been he only will sign an extension with the Lakers.

              Bynum, who grew up about an hour away from Philadelphia in Plainsboro, N.J., could sign a three-year, $60 million extension this season or wait to become a free agent after the season and be eligible for a five-year, $102 million deal.

              Near the end of July, Howard met with Magic general manager Rob Hennigan and reiterated he still wants to be traded, and if he isn't, will leave the team as a free agent after next season.

              The Lakers' position on Howard has remained relatively unchanged for the past few months, league sources familiar with the situation have told ESPNLosAngeles.com. The Lakers always have been willing to trade for Howard without assurances he'd re-sign with them after the season, believing that once Howard experienced a championship culture, he would want to stay.

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