Dwight Howard’s name has been everywhere over the past several months.
Well, almost everywhere.
“I keep to myself mostly,” center Brook Lopez said yesterday at the press conference to announce his re-signing with the Nets. “I read a lot of books and comic books, and they don’t mention Dwight Howard too much.”
Since the lockout ended last year, Lopez has been the centerpiece of any trade offer the Nets sent Orlando’s way for Howard, the superstar center whom they hoped to pair with Deron Williams as the franchise prepares to debut in Brooklyn and the Barclays Center this fall.
But after the Nets spent days negotiating with the Magic again earlier this month, Nets general manager Billy King eventually broke off talks last Wednesday in order to secure a deal with Lopez’s agent, Arn Tellem. The two sides eventually hammered out a four-year maximum contract extension worth $61 million, ensuring the team’s longest tenured player will be its starting center as it moves to Brooklyn.
“These are definitely exciting times for us,” Lopez said. “I’m definitely anxious to finally start the season off. … I’m counting down the days. I don’t know the last time that I’ve been this excited to start the season.”
Even though the trade talk could return if Howard is still with the Magic when Lopez is eligible to be traded again on Jan. 15, Lopez said he’s comfortable with his status with the Nets.
“They signed me,” Lopez said. “That’s a very good sign of faith from them.”
But for as much as Lopez likes to downplay the impact the swirling trade rumors have had on him, Nets coach Avery Johnson was concerned.
So he drove out to Lopez’s basketball camp in New Jersey last month to sit down with the 24-year-old center and talk to him about the uncertainty surrounding his upcoming free agency and future.
“It was trying to get ahead of what I saw coming down the pike,” Johnson said. “I just didn’t want him to think he was on an island by himself. … I wanted to go out and reiterate some of the things I told him about his game, about me wanting him to be a part of what we’re doing here.
“A lot of the stuff that’s out there, as the coach I can’t necessarily control it. But just be prepared to come back and be a dominant center like I know you can be.”
Lopez couldn’t be that center for much of last season, as the combination of a stress fracture in the fifth metatarsal in his right foot and a later right ankle injury kept Lopez sidelined for all but five games. After playing in every game the first three seasons of his career, averaging 17.4 points on 50.4 percent shooting and 7.6 rebounds, he admitted it was a struggle to sit and watch.
“It’s not something that I’ve done before and it just made me realize just how much I love the game and being on the floor,” Lopez said. “Like you said, hopefully this next season, starting with game one, I’ll be able to play.”
After spending the first four years of his career playing on losing teams, Lopez is also excited to take the floor with the new and improved Nets roster, which features a starting lineup of Williams, Joe Johnson and Gerald Wallace — all former All-Stars — and re-signed power forward Kris Humphries, who has averaged a double-double each of the past two seasons.
“I want to get out there with the guys and on the floor in training camp,” Lopez said, “work through mini-camp, work through preseason and get to that opening night.”
tbontemps@nypost.com