Howard takes his turn as media's All-Star target

ORLANDO, Fla. — Dwight Howard led the way Friday afternoon as the Eastern Conference All-Stars filed one by one into Orange Ballroom D at the Orlando Hilton for their 45-minute media session.
For Howard, it was about to be the longest 45 minutes of the most tumultuous season of his career, and as the Orlando Magic's burly big man, towering above the masses, weaved his way through the throng of reporters awaiting his arrival, a familiar voice rang out from the back of the crowd.
“Thank you, Dwight, thank you,” New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony shouted, eliciting a laugh from Miami Heat forward and Eastern Conference teammate LeBron James. “It’s your turn.”
For each of the past two All-Star weekends, Anthony and James have been the ones to bite the bullet as the media dissected their future plans, so it was nice to be on the other side of the fence for once.
The yearly event is supposed to be a relaxing getaway and a three-day party for the NBA’s stars, but James, Anthony and now Howard — guys whose futures were riddled with so much doubt — have learned that it can be anything but.
"I still had to walk around. I still had to participate in everything,” Anthony said of last year’s event in Los Angeles, which took place after Anthony requested a trade from Denver to New York. “The questions were there at every event, every appearance I went to — from practice, to games, and even during the game. Nobody really even cared about the game. They just wanted to know what was going to happen, where I was going to end up."
When it comes to players such as Anthony and James, Howard’s personal hell unfolding in the public eye actually provides a twisted moment of respite from the madness that is their usual NBA grind, especially around this weekend.
But it’s only because they’ve been in Howard’s shoes that they have the right to make such fun at Howard’s expense.
"I know exactly what he's going through,” James said. “It's a tough situation, but he's going to handle it. He's a man. . . . He's going to do what's best for him."
Unlike the All-Star sagas of James and Anthony, Howard’s is unique in that his drama is being magnified in his hometown, adding an extra degree of difficulty as Howard ungracefully traverses this slippery slope.
“I told him this weekend was going to be a zoo for him,” Anthony said of Howard. “He’s home; he’s in Orlando. This is his All-Star weekend, and I wanted him to be able to enjoy it rather than have to deal with all the stuff that’s going on out there.”
So Howard, seemingly intent on following Anthony’s sage wisdom, did nothing to shed any new light on his status with the Magic, despite the desperate pleas from the multitude of reporters in attendance. Instead, he chose to swat away any and all questions about his ongoing contract situation to the side.
“If it’s not about All-Star weekend, then I don’t want to talk about it,” Howard proclaimed, a reference to his December trade request, one that has yet to be fulfilled and might never be fulfilled by Magic management. "I'm here. It doesn't matter what would've or should've happened."
Instead of discussing his future, Howard chose rather to sell Orlando as a great place to be, and he seemed to take it personally when one reporter astutely suggested that it was unusual for Howard to speak so highly of a city he can’t wait to get out of.
"It seems weird to you — you’re not from here.” Howard shot back in a brief moment of gravity during an otherwise jocular press conference. "It’s not weird. This is our city. It’s still Orlando. My home is here, so this will always be my home. It doesn't feel weird. They (the fans) don't say it's weird.
“A lot of the fans here (say), ‘Whatever you decide to do here, we’re behind you 100 percent.' They’ve been great despite what people may say or think. The fans here have always been great, and I appreciate it. They’ve shown me nothing but love from Day 1, and I’ve done the same thing. This city means a lot to me.”
Howard’s pandering to the fans may have gotten him through his podium time, but his assertion that the people of Orlando are fine regardless of what happens is completely misguided. Howard’s supporters want to know just as badly as anyone what jersey he’ll be wearing next season. And should he decide to leave, they’ll turn on him in an instant.
But at the same time, what is Howard supposed to tell people right now? What can he say that he hasn’t already said? He can’t be candid without getting ripped to shreds, and his future is in someone else’s hands until at least March 15.
“It's just a tough situation to be in,” said Heat forward Chris Bosh, who left the Raptors two summers ago to join James and Dwyane Wade in Miami. “To be asked questions about something you don't know about, I mean people push you for an answer to a question you can't answer. It's just something you can't do anything about. Time will tell what he is going to do."
Fortunately, Howard’s opponents have been more than happy to discuss Howard’s future for him in the meantime.
"I mean he just wants his team to be better," Lakers guard Kobe Bryant told reporters Saturday. "I think a player sometimes reaches a certain level of frustration, and they don't feel the needle isn't being moved in the right direction."
Like LeBron and ‘Melo, Kobe speaks from a place of experience when evaluating Howard.
Not that long ago — but before James and Anthony — Bryant was the guy in Howard’s shoes. After his Lakers were unceremoniously eliminated from the Western Conference playoffs in 2007, Bryant very publicly expressed his displeasure with the team’s direction.
"I would like to be traded," Bryant said at the time, telling reporters there was no chance he'd have a change of heart and stay in LA. "Tough as it is to come to that conclusion, there's no other alternative, you know?
"(The Lakers), obviously, want to move in a different direction in terms of rebuilding. . . . At this point, I'll go play on Pluto."
A short time later, the Lakers acquired Pau Gasol from Memphis, paving the way to back-to-back championships in 2009 and 2010.
Anthony’s narrative ended when he was traded, mercifully, to New York the day after last year’s All-Star Game, and his life could finally return to something that resembled normalcy.
But it seems Howard’s storyline is likely to play out more like LeBron’s, which was chronicled famously in "The Decision," and less like Bryant’s or Anthony’s.
“If he doesn’t play well, they’re going to say he’s tanking it, and if he does play well, they’re going to say he doesn’t care anyway,” Anthony said. “It’s a lose-lose situation for him. It’s sad, but that’s the life we live.”
Howard has done his best this weekend and throughout the season to sidestep any and all talk about his plans and the faithful city he seems set to leave behind. But until his decision is made, inquiring minds will always want to know what’s next.
“I was affected by it, but I don’t think anybody saw it,” Anthony said of his final days in Denver. “I didn’t show anybody that I was affected by it. The only time it affected me was when I went home and I laid my head down on the pillow and couldn’t sleep.”
Howard took a deep breath as his media time Friday came to an end, and stepped down from his elevated podium, forcing a smile as he once again fought through the sea of reporters intent on making his life a living hell.
The burden Howard has carried throughout All-Star weekend is painful and heavy, and the event — one that should be a celebration of the league’s best players — serves as a harrowing reminder that things are just going to get worse.
“I don’t want him to have a bitter taste about this experience when it’s all over with,” Anthony said.
But that ship, as Howard well knows, has already sailed.
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