Facepalm from Dwight

[IronMaiden 43]

Man this sucks. He's gone. It sucks to be a Magic fan. Cavs fans can cry all they want about Lebron leaving, but we've had Shaq, McGrady and now likely Howard just want outta here. Sure T-Mac's career went down the toilet not too long after he left, but at the time it still hurt because he was a star player.

 

I'm just gonna make it a point not to whine and snot all over the place like Cleveland fans. Get over it quick ya know? Life goes on. We'll get another superstar player at some point, and we'll have a hell of a time watching them flounder away championships for 5 years before ditching us. Hopefully in between we get another heart & hustle team. I had a hell of a time watching them, even though I knew they weren't gonna win a championship or anything close.

[Marc Acres 3:16 418]

I just don't think you can make the argument that Orlando can compare to an LA or NY in terms of every facet of life for someone with his level of potiential fame (or even someone with no fame). Money, legacy, culture, exposure, living. It's not really even arguable.

 

I'm not. What I am saying is for a guy that already has that kind of exposure there is no difference in terms of what he can and cannot do. Is he going to become more famous by playing for LA? Does anyone think that there are people that don't know who Dwight is by now that will suddenly see him? The guy is huge in China how did that happen with him playing for Orlando?

 

Money? Well he will take a hit on that with state tax alone. I guess you could make an arguement that larger market equals more ad dollars but you make the money off national ads. Did Shaq pick up a larger amount of national ads after moving to LA? How many products have Dwight's face on them now? Is Lebron hurting for cash or is he lacking in the number of products with his face on them? Miami is #16 in TV rankings, 3 spots above Orlando. It's not the same out there as it was in the 80's.

 

As far as legacy goes you are right there is no comparison. If he goes to an LA he will be the next Shaq, Kareem, Wilt. If he goes to NY he will be the next Patrick or Willis. You want to leave a legacy, you want to be remembered for something? Be the guy that win's where no one else has.

[Crazyhorse81 247]

You want to leave a legacy, you want to be remembered for something? Be the guy that wins where no one else has.

 

Signed,

 

Dirk Nowitzki

[NittanyBuc 757]

Signed,

 

Dirk Nowitzki

Hopefully Dwight uses this year's Finals as a little inspiration.... Then again I'm probably giving him too much credit :svgsad:

[Tough Break There 96]

Is he going to become more famous by playing for LA?

 

Simply, yes. One of the biggest media market's in the world. I realize this is the Internet Age and you can be seen everywhere, but there's simply a different level of exposure playing for big-market marquee team.

 

It may seem weird to us who follow basketball closely, but your girlfriend, sister, non-sports person, etc., knows who Lamar *****ing Odom is and has no clue who Kevin Durant is. There's a reason for this.

 

Dwight wouldn't move for the money, but yes, even factoring in taxes, a marquee player in NY/LA is going to make fistfuls over the star in the small market. Agents have been focusing in on this and will continue to do so. Derrick Brooks makes local Brighthouse commercials; Michael Strahan makes national Subway commercials. Guess who's getting paid more. Years after their playing careers are over.

 

Dwight's obviously in a tough spot with the Magic personnel wise, and if the whispers are true and the Magic haven't consulted him on every signing they make, then we *****ed up big time.

 

But beyond all of that, you're a 25-year old with 9 figures in the bank. Do you want to spend the most electric years of your life living in a loft in Manhatten, a mansion in Beverly Hills or the corner of Seminole county (where you've been for 8 years already)? I think it's a rare personality that passes up the biggest stage.

 

I love Dwight, but it's his deal. He single-handedly kept this team from leaving town and has given us years of stellar ball. He's been pretty actively involved in the community too. If he's not into staying on; then he's not. I'd wish him well. Those that don't baffle me.

[BlackWat3r 20]

"There's more you can do in a bigger place. I'm stuck in a tough position because I feel like right now, where I'm at, I've done so much. And I just don't know what else I can do. I can't live for everybody else,"

"I just think about what's going to be best for what I want to accomplish in my life. And I don't want that door to close on me, wherever that door is."

I hate to say it but this pretty much says he is gone, this sounds exactly like all the other stars comments when they are planning to leave, and to be honest it's been pretty obvious for awhile if you noticed the comments he has made since the end of the season and his rants on twitter. The comments like I love this city BUT....it's the same thing every star says.

"The only thing I had a real problem with was the way [Van Gundy] coached," Howard told the magazine. 'It was very tough with Stan, because he yelled a lot, and I don't want to be that guy to yell at my teammates along with my coach. Because they're going to turn it all off. I had to find different ways to motivate my team. Sometimes when you have so much negativity, it's really hard to be positive."

This is exactly what I have been saying for about 2 years now. I have always said that players do not want to play for SVG, he is the most negative coach in the league on the court and his act gets EXTREMELY old to the players. You can literally pull any game clip and just watch the sidelines, seriously all you will see is SVG on the sidelines with his arms crossed and a bitter look on his face and when someone makes an error he shows them up on the sidelines with his trademark throwing the arms up in the air and shaking his head.

 

As a fan you probably think it's not that big of a deal but as a player, and from my own experience, it's hard to play for a coach who is consistently negative. If you watched the magic play for the past 2 seasons you probably noticed how flat (unmotivated, zero energy) our teams plays with, and I have said it all along that's it's because stan's negativity just drains the team over the season.

 

Basically what happens when you have a negative coach is that players play tense and are afraid to make a mistake. For example, if you look at Arenas play, he was constantly looking over his shoulder at SVG after every mistake. Obviously I'm not blaming arenas poor play on SVG, I'm just pointing out that the negativity deeply impacts players confidence. And it's not just arenas, I felt Jameer and J-Rich both looked like they had lost there confidence on the court.

 

Also I will add...remember that article that came out this summer about one of the players saying SVG was to negative and didn't like playing for him and everyone thought it was just Gilbert (and it probably was) but that wasn't the first time a player has said that. If you go back to after we lost the Boston series both Dwight and Jameer came out and said to reporters that they want SVG to stop being so negative during the games and gilbert wasn't on the team at the time, and now you have Dwight once again reiterating it to public.

 

Of course people will still disagree with this because SVG is a fan favorite because he tells all in press conferences, but it's pretty much a fact now that players can't stand playing for him and trust me if you have ever player with a consistently negative coach you would understand.

[E27 33]

Dwight's obviously in a tough spot with the Magic personnel wise, and if the whispers are true and the Magic haven't consulted him on every signing they make, then we *****ed up big time.

I agree with everything in this post, but I want to point this out. This has to be true. I mean...there is no way Dwight Howard knocked on Otis Smith's door and demanded that the Magic acquire Arenas, Turkoglu, and Richardson and give up a ton of post help.

 

At the end of the day, if Dwight leaves, we have no one to blame for management for the moves (or lack thereof) they made. It's like McGrady all over again. You can blame the player all you want, but he had to put up with bad management, which is happening now with Dwight. And if Dwight leaves, I fully expect ownership to clean house to get people in who can run a franchise.

[Marc Acres 3:16 418]

Simply, yes. One of the biggest media market's in the world. I realize this is the Internet Age and you can be seen everywhere, but there's simply a different level of exposure playing for big-market marquee team.

 

It may seem weird to us who follow basketball closely, but your girlfriend, sister, non-sports person, etc., knows who Lamar *****ing Odom is and has no clue who Kevin Durant is. There's a reason for this.

 

Dwight wouldn't move for the money, but yes, even factoring in taxes, a marquee player in NY/LA is going to make fistfuls over the star in the small market. Agents have been focusing in on this and will continue to do so. Derrick Brooks makes local Brighthouse commercials; Michael Strahan makes national Subway commercials. Guess who's getting paid more. Years after their playing careers are over.

 

Dwight's obviously in a tough spot with the Magic personnel wise, and if the whispers are true and the Magic haven't consulted him on every signing they make, then we *****ed up big time.

 

But beyond all of that, you're a 25-year old with 9 figures in the bank. Do you want to spend the most electric years of your life living in a loft in Manhatten, a mansion in Beverly Hills or the corner of Seminole county (where you've been for 8 years already)? I think it's a rare personality that passes up the biggest stage.

 

I love Dwight, but it's his deal. He single-handedly kept this team from leaving town and has given us years of stellar ball. He's been pretty actively involved in the community too. If he's not into staying on; then he's not. I'd wish him well. Those that don't baffle me.

 

We will have to agree to disagree on this point. If you asked me 5 yrs ago or even the year before the finals if Dwight would become more famous by moving to LA then I would say yes, things have changed quite a bit since then. I agree with you about Durant, he's fantastic and the casual fan doesn't know a thing about him but, he also doesn't have Dwight's personality. He also didn't put on a show 2 yrs in a row at the dunk competition. He didn't play on the Olympic team. Durant wasn't the leading vote getter for the all-star team a voting system that include China the largest population in the world. Dwight is already global.

 

"But beyond all of that, you're a 25-year old with 9 figures in the bank. Do you want to spend the most electric years of your life living in a loft in Manhatten, a mansion in Beverly Hills or the corner of Seminole county (where you've been for 8 years already)? I think it's a rare personality that passes up the biggest stage."

 

You will get no arguement out of me there but that isn't what he is saying in that article. I don't have a problem with him wanting to live in those places for those reasons but come out and say that is why you want to go, not because you fear you won't become a global product when you already are one.

[Drain-O 369]

Remove yourself as a Magic fan real quick and think of this scenario. You can either carry Gilbert Arenas, Hedo Turkoglu and a subpar roster over the next 2 years (at least) or you can go to go to Brooklyn and play with the best point guard in the NBA. Now you have upgraded your team and succeeded in your desire to play in a larger market. There is no way that would not be appealing to all of you.

 

He does not owe it to the Magic to carry them through years of mediocrity like Garnett did in Minnesota while management bumbled decision after decision around him. The only hope is that the ownership somehow cleans house or they are able to get rid of enough guys to become players in the 2012 free agent market.

 

If he leaves it falls 100% on management.

[Magicman28 295]

Personally, I feel Dwight hasn't totally made up his mind but is leaning towards a change. I think, and its already been brought up, is heres a 26 year old who wants to the bright lights and big city and the chance to win a championship. The ability to go out and mingle with other stars in LA, or NY or even Brooklyn for a young man like that is very enticing. I think hes being quite honest about it which doesn't make him Lebron Part Duex. I am a bit disappointed (which is why I named the topic what I did) that he has kinda gone the path of Shaq but never living that life, I'm sure its hard to turn down. I think we all wanted him to be a Tim Duncan or Dirk. Humbled guys who just wanted to play ball but the fact is, Dwight is a star in many facets of life even though I think his music career is overrated and I think basketball players trying to be actors is a joke somewhat. Sure, he wants to win but he wants to live the life that Kobe has. The life that Derek Jeter has. The life that DWade lives. To leave your house and be in the same atmosphere where things are happening. Here in Orlando, we have a small amount of that we can offer but not on par with a star that Dwight has become and could become potentially.

 

 

This leads me to other part. Winning. Otis imo has done everything you DON'T do as a GM when your team gets to the finals. I won't even start with Rashard Lewis signing. You trade core pieces for a guy who you called fools gold just a year before. You then trade a starting caliber center in this day in age, and an expiring contract for what we got (we also traded Pietrus and a 1st rounder). One of those players being a player you refused to overpay and rightfully so. Hedo was clearly on the decline. To trade for him a couple of years later and hes not even an expiring is ridiculous in itself. Ok, so we got JRich and Earl Clark. Again, for a starting caliber center? Hindsight is 20/20 but I'm willing to bet other gm's would've waited out and could've gotten something better. That deal alone was a facepalm. Now comes the Arenas deal. I don't know how this plays out. I don't know if Otis plans on amnestying him and resigning him to a smaller contract? I don't know if thats even possible under the CBA but if you DON'T amnesty him, even if you do find a taker for Hedo's bloated contract, you still owe Arenas a boatload of money which kills our flexability. I don't care if he comes back and averages 15 and 6 or 18 and 7. He isn't worth that money at 29 and coming off serious surgery. Hell, outside of Kobe, I don't think anyone is worth that type of contract. Is it fixable, who knows? Otis has done everything you don't do and has taken a team that had tons of flexability and was winning to a team that has no flexability and ousted out of the first round.

[Magicman28 295]

Remove yourself as a Magic fan real quick and think of this scenario. You can either carry Gilbert Arenas, Hedo Turkoglu and a subpar roster over the next 2 years (at least) or you can go to go to Brooklyn and play with the best point guard in the NBA. Now you have upgraded your team and succeeded in your desire to play in a larger market. There is no way that would not be appealing to all of you.

 

He does not owe it to the Magic to carry them through years of mediocrity like Garnett did in Minnesota while management bumbled decision after decision around him. The only hope is that the ownership somehow cleans house or they are able to get rid of enough guys to become players in the 2012 free agent market.

 

If he leaves it falls 100% on management.

 

 

 

 

Agree and what bothers me is even upper management above Otis doesn't seem to get it. They keep hiring squares to fit round holes and then stick with them even after they kill roster flexability.

[KandiKane 136]

I also believe he is gone. Still a magic fan through and through. What I also believe is that Otis Smith is not the GM to handle the situation of trading Dwight to get as much value back as possible. His clear mistakes over the last 4 years should have put a new person in the position he currently holds. At the end of the day I may not completely blame Otis as the reason to a Dwight departure.... but I am sure going to blame him for his terrible decisions which have crippled my team.