Three-and-a-half years ago, Dwight Howard
slumped his shoulders inside Staples Center and responded sheepishly on the
issue of Shaquille O'Neal trashing him over and over.
"I can't tell you why he's said a lot of
discouraging things," Howard said to me. "I wish he wouldn't say it because he's
one of the few guys that we all look up to."
As a 23-year-old reaching the NBA Finals
against the Los Angeles Lakers, Howard was still an earnest young star searching
out the blessing that never came from Shaq.
For all the preaching Shaq had done about
paying respect to your elders, Howard never understood why his relentless praise
of Shaq was reciprocated with ridicule and scorn. Howard never understood why
Shaq didn't see it as flattering that an engaging, dynamic young center had
grown up idolizing, even emulating, him.
"Shaq played the game and he is done,"
Howard told reporters on Thursday. "It's time to move on. He hated the fact when
he played that older guys were talking about him and how he played. Now he's
doing the exact same thing. Just let it go. There's no sense for him to be
talking trash to me. He did his thing in the league. Sit back and
relax.
"Your time is up."
Howard doesn't need to respond to Shaq to
win over Kobe Bryant, because Bryant's already a believer in him. Bryant knows
that Howard will come to work every day, that he'll keep himself physically fit.
Those are things that Bryant could never count upon with O'Neal. Howard doesn't
need to stand up to Shaq for Kobe's sake, but his own.
Howard has come to the Lakers to win
championships, the way that Shaq did all those years ago. He's an iconic talent,
and Shaq's kidding himself to try to minimize Howard's dominance. The greatest
Lakers center before Shaq believed that, too – long before Howard made his way
to Los Angeles.
Outside the interview room that day
during the June '09 NBA Finals, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar shook his head, and told me
of Shaq, "Sometimes I wonder about his maturity. He doesn't need to do that.
He's achieved so much. I don't know why he stoops to that."
Shaq is a forever star in the NBA, and
gets paid to deliver his opinions on television now. Howard has earned
criticism, absorbed it, and yet his talent is too immense for Shaq to believe
for a moment that Lakers fans will be longing for him over Howard this
season.
Dwight Howard might not make his Los
Angeles Lakers debut in the team's Oct. 30 season-opener against the Dallas
Mavericks after all. Howard is now hopeful he can return from back surgery
earlier than expected and possibly play in the preseason.
"Hopefully, I will be back for some
preseason games," Howard said following the Lakers' first practice on Monday. "I
think we are going to need it for chemistry and all that stuff."
When asked if his optimism was reason to
think he would definitely play on opening night, Howard was more cautious with
his words.
"All I know is we had a great practice
today," he said. "I don't know the date when I will return. But I'm looking
forward to tomorrow's practice to see how my body feels when I wake up. We can
only go by time right now and how I feel after practice. We are not in a rush.
These guys need me for the whole season."
Howard had been playing one-on-one games
against assistant coaches Darvin Ham and Chuck Person prior to the start of
training camp. Lakers coach Mike Brown said Howard took part in the majority of
Tuesday's lengthy practice that lasted about four hours, but Howard was given a
break during a drill to give his feet a rest. The Lakers engaged in light work
on the Princeton offense with Howard taking part in each first-team exercise.
Howard said he had no setbacks.
The Lakers play their first preseason
game Sunday against the Golden State Warriors in Fresno, Calif. Howard isn't
expected to be in uniform. But even if Howard doesn't play in the preseason, the
Lakers still have 23 practices scheduled before the start of the season, giving
him and Steve Nash time to build chemistry with their new teammates.
"As long as he's in practice and able to
go through things offensively, go through our system and stuff like that, I
don't think it will be an issue," Bryant said.
Lakers assistant coach Eddie Jordan spent
time at the end of practice working with the players on implementing the
Princeton offense. The Lakers averaged 97.3 points per game last season, a drop
of more than four points per game from what they averaged in the 2010-11 season
while running Phil Jackson's triangle offense.
Bryant, who has met with Brown and Jordan
about the offense, is excited about the change.
"The more talent you have, the more
imperative it is to have an equal opportunity system where you let the flow of
the game determine which shots come for me," Bryant said. "You just work to get
the best shot possible and really just read the defense."
Dwight Howard won't finish his
rehabilitation from back surgery in time for the start of the Los Angeles
Lakers' training camp or their first preseason game next month.
The Lakers provided an update on the
newly acquired center's condition on their website Thursday night, confirming
their long-anticipated decision to take it easy in Howard's return from spinal
surgery.
The team doesn't intend to announce a
timetable for Howard's recovery, but says he won't participate in the start of
training camp on Oct. 2, or the preseason opener in Fresno five days
later.
The six-time All-Star has said he hopes
to be ready for the start of the regular season Oct. 30, but the team isn't
speculating.
Howard recently began working with the
Lakers' training staff on his recovery from surgery last April repairing a
herniated disc and doing additional cleanup. Howard's personal trainer is
working alongside the Lakers' staff, and the center has experienced no
setbacks.
Howard is doing core stabilization
training while also getting in a little light running and shooting.
The Lakers can afford to be cautious with
their new big man, acquired from Orlando in a four-team trade on Aug. 10 that
sent All-Star center Andrew Bynum to Philadelphia.
Pau Gasol will be ready to play in the
middle when training camp opens in two weeks, and the Lakers have years of
experience in dealing with injured centers during Bynum's injury
struggles.
After a pre-trade deadline telephone call
when Dwight Howard and Kobe Bryant hung up believing they could never co-exist
as teammates, months and months passed and, still, the two superstars never
spoke again. Howard wanted Bryant to tell him what the Lakers could do to
elevate his offensive stature, and Bryant wanted Howard to tell him he was
determined to come with a defensive and rebounding mindset to make the Lakers
champions again.
The call ended poorly, and it wouldn't be
long until Howard had turned toward a path of far less resistance with the
Brooklyn Nets.
As much as anything, Howard was
determined to stop marching down the path of Shaquille O'Neal: From No. 1
overall pick to ring-less Orlando Magic center to self-proclaimed Superman,
comedian and goofball musician, there was a part of Howard that resisted the
inevitable power play to also make him a Laker.
Nevertheless, Howard made a mess of an
easy exit out of Orlando, obliterating his march into a max-contract salary slot
with Deron Williams and the Nets with an impulsive choice to reject his contract
opt-out. Freedom of choice was gone, and the Magic wouldn't do a deal with
Brooklyn.
In the end, Howard needed the Lakers and
Bryant. And yes – for now and the future – Bryant and the Lakers needed Howard.
The trade was completed on Friday and Howard gets the bright lights, big city
and a championship chase with the Lakers. Howard gets his Showtime, but make no
mistake: Howard comes without leverage in the locker room and doesn't have the
latitude to revert back to his old class-clown self.
"I think that changes just by the
pressure that he's under now," Bryant told Yahoo! Sports late Friday night "That
pressure is on us all. We have to win championships. The focus will be higher,
the intensity will be higher."
[Yes, the Lakers need a serious-minded
star for a serious-minded basketball franchise. Stan Van Gundy tried so, so hard
to instill that within Howard, but the culture of Orlando always made the Magic
beholden to Howard. No more. Howard is bigger than life, but he isn't bigger
than the Lakers.
So, yes, Bryant searched out Howard's
cell phone on Friday morning and made the call to Howard that the two superstars
had resisted for months now. When the time comes rest assured Bryant will make
something clear: The carnival act ends now. The clowning and goofing are done.
During games, players used to hear Kevin Garnett screaming at Howard: "Paint
your face, clown!" up and down the floor.
As the Houston Rockets prepare for a run
at Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard, they've secured another top 20 pick in
the NBA draft. The Rockets traded forward Chase Budinger to the Minnesota
Timberwolves for the 18th overall pick in the draft, giving Houston the 14th,
16th and 18th picks in Thursday's draft. The Rockets included the rights to
Israeli Lior Eliyahu in the deal with Minnesota.
Budinger, a second-round pick in 2009,
developed into a solid performer at small forward for the Rockets. At 6-foot-7,
he averaged 9.6 points and 3.7 rebounds for Houston last season. He'll have a
chance to play significant minutes for the Timberwolves.
Houston has been undaunted by Howard's
private insistence that he wants a trade to only the Brooklyn Nets or Dallas
Mavericks, sources said. Houston is willing to make a deal for Howard, believing
it can convince him to re-sign before he becomes a free agent in the summer of
2013. Rockets GM Daryl Morey has been determined to use the assets on his roster
to secure a high-level league star.
Houston will work to flip those three
picks (14, 16 and 18) into higher picks that could be used for an impact player
out of Thursday's draft, or to further sweeten a deal for Howard or another
league star, sources said.
Howard had back surgery in May and will
be sidelined throughout the summer. He bypassed a chance to become a free agent
this summer but has shown the Magic no indication he wants to re-sign with them
long-term after another falling out with the organization near season's
end.
Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers
looked far from a championship contender in their Western Conference semifinal
series loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder this spring.
So, who do the Lakers need to get back on
top?
Here we examine three players who would
drastically improve the Lakers and help Kobe Bryant challenge for his sixth NBA
title.
Dwight Howard
LA should look to send center Andrew
Bynum to Orlando along with either a first-round draft pick or perhaps involve
Pau Gasol in a three-team trade that brings Superman to Hollywood. Bynum is two
years younger than Howard and doesn't have an ailing back, so he's the guy the
Magic would most likely want in return.
If the Lakers can pull off a Bynum-Howard
deal without having to part ways with one of their seven-footers, Gasol, then
they would easily be considered a threat to win it all in 2013.
Lamar Odom
Arguably the biggest difference for the
LA Lakers this past postseason was the void in the frontcourt left by Lamar
Odom, who was traded to the defending champion Dallas Mavericks after he had a
falling out with the front office following the lockout. The ill feelings came
after a botched trade involving Odom.
The Mavericks actually asked Odom to go
home late in the season before the playoffs began because he was so unhappy and
bad in Big D. Odom played in 50 games last season, averaging 6.6 points per game
and shooting a dismal 35 percent from the field.
Odom was a big-time sixth man for the
Lakers during their latest championship run and averaged a double-double in two
of his seven seasons in LA.
Randy Foye
LA Clippers point guard Randy Foye
wouldn't have to go far if he were to join the Lakers this offseason. The
sharpshooting Foye hit more than 38 percent of his shots from downtown last
season, and averaged 11 points in less than 26 minutes per game.
Foye isn't a phenomenal passer, but is a
definite shooting upgrade over Ramon Sessions, who has a $4.6 million player
option this summer. Considering that the basketball flows through Kobe Bryant on
most nights, LA might be better off acquiring shooters to surround the Black
Mamba.
