Dwight Howard is still in Orlando as the NBA season prepares to tip off today, almost two months late. How long he stays there is among the league’s biggest questions, one month after a new labor agreement erased the chance there would not be a season at all.
Howard might be the dominant big man in a league lacking so-called true centers, a three-time defensive player of the year who has averaged 18.2 points, 12.9 rebounds and 2.2 blocks for his career. He starts his eighth year when the Magic host the Oklahoma City Thunder, one of five games to open the season on Christmas Day.
Howard’s talents might make the Magic the latest NBA team to trade its star player to avoid losing him as a free agent without getting anything in return. Among the possible destinations are Los Angeles and 16-time NBA-champion the Lakers, the New York area with the Brooklyn-bound New Jersey Nets or the Dallas Mavericks.
Photo: Reuters
“Let’s face it, it doesn’t make sense for Orlando to risk losing him and get nothing next year,” Stan Kasten, a former Atlanta Hawks president, said in a telephone interview. “What’s interesting is if Dwight would be amenable, Orlando has a better chance to sign him now than they had before. It just looks like he wants to leave, which is his right.”
While Magic officials have said the team wants him to stay, they risk losing him as a free agent without compensation after this season if they do not re-sign or trade him.
If Howard is traded, he would follow Chris Paul as the second impending free agent All-Star dealt since ratification of a labor deal that was supposed to help keep big-name players in smaller markets.
The focus on Howard’s future might prompt the Magic to make a decision sooner rather than later to avoid distractions as well as to get something in return. Howard was criticized for his play in a 33-point pre-season loss to Miami last Sunday, when he scored five points on 2 of 9 shooting and grabbed six rebounds.
“Because of the situation that’s going on, every little thing is going to be magnified times 100,” Howard told reporters. “I know that. My teammates know it.”
The Denver Nuggets traded Carmelo Anthony to the Knicks in February after months of speculation. The Utah Jazz surprised Deron Williams by trading the All-Star guard to the Nets last season rather than see him leave as a free agent.
The Magic, Lakers, Nets and Mavericks are the only teams where Howard would sign a long-term contract, ESPN said, citing an unidentified person close to the situation.
The New Orleans Hornets sent Paul, an All-Star point guard, to the Clippers this month after an earlier trade with the Lakers was canceled by NBA commissioner David Stern.
The trade rumors have also raised questions about the Lakers, who had sought both Paul and Howard. The Lakers this year entered into a 20-year local television contract with Time Warner Cable and are seeking marketable stars with Bryant, at age 33, probably approaching the latter stages of his career.
Howard could give the Lakers a dominant low-post player. He turned 26 this month and might be the NBA’s best true center, who stays near the basket on offense, rebounds well and complements smaller players on the perimeter.
Howard also could be the latest in a line of Lakers stars — including Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal and Bryant — who draw celebrities courtside.
The Lakers have quality players such as Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum to offer in a trade and would probably be able to withstand the financial hit of the NBA’s increased penalties for teams exceeding the luxury tax threshold, Kasten said. NBA teams above a certain payroll have to pay a fine, or luxury tax, to the league.
Losing Howard would be reminiscent of the Magic parting with O’Neal, who spent his first four seasons in Orlando. He won three NBA titles with the Lakers and another in Miami before retiring this year as the fifth-leading scorer in league history.
The NBA’s owners and players completed a collective bargaining agreement last month that’s supposed to help bring increased stability to teams in lower-revenue markets.
“The new CBA can’t create competitive balance,” Steve Kerr, an NBA analyst for Time Warner’s TNT network, said in a telephone interview. “They can try to entice guys to stay where they are, but beyond that you can’t get rid of free agency. If a guy wants to go somewhere else, he’s going to go somewhere else.”
INJURY TURMOIL: Despite stunning French Open champions Paolini and Errani to advance, Chan was forced to pull out after her partner’s tearful women’s singles defeat Last year’s mixed doubles champions Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan and Poland’s Jan Zielinski on Monday crashed out of the quarter-finals at Wimbledon, leaving the Taiwanese star focused on pursuing a fifth women’s doubles title in London, while a partner injury forced compatriot Chan Hao-ching to give up on her doubles campaign. Hsieh and Zielinksi, who last year also won the Australia Open title, narrowly lost their opening set 7-6 (9/7), before Britain’s Joe Salisbury and Brazil’s Luisa Stefani stunned the former champions 6-3 at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. The Taiwanese-Polish duo had been dominant in the first two
HSIEH ADVANCES: In the women’s doubles, Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei was to play in the second round last night, but Taiwan’s Ray Ho exited in the men’s doubles It is more than 10 years since Grigor Dimitrov reached his sole Wimbledon semi-final and back then it still seemed a reasonable bet that the Bulgarian once dubbed “Baby Federer” would win a Grand Slam title. There were semi-final runs at the US Open and Australian Open after that, but it has never quite happened and despite him still being ranked No. 21, it most likely never will. Dimitrov, 34, remains one of the most stylish players on the circuit though, with his elegant single-handed backhand and smooth all-court game a rare reminder of how tennis was before the power merchants turned
Real Madrid’s FIFA Club World Cup quarter-final against Borussia Dortmund had taken three crazy turns during nine minutes of second-half stoppage time when Marcel Sabitzer chested the ball and sent a right-footed volley toward Thibaut Courtois’ post. Courtois leapt to his right, extended the long arm on his 2m frame and just managed to get his gloved fingertips on the ball, knocking it down. Courtois hit the ground as the ball bounded up. He looked skyward, planted his right hand to regain his balance, grabbed the ball with both hands on the second bounce and fell onto it with his chest. Sabitzer turned
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has overturned French Olympic fencer Ysaora Thibus’ four-year suspension for doping, ruling that her positive test for a banned substance was caused by kissing her then-boyfriend, American fencer Race Imboden. Thibus, a silver medalist in team foil at the Tokyo Games, had tested positive for ostarine, a prohibited muscle-building substance, during a competition in Paris in January last year. However, CAS concluded there was no intentional wrongdoing, finding it scientifically plausible that repeated kissing over several days with Olympic medalist Imboden — who was taking ostarine at the time — led to accidental contamination. The court
RSS