ORLANDO, Fla. — The speculation and guesswork and mixed signals surrounding Dwight Howard can continue. All-Star Weekend is over.
Howard, the superstar Magic center who tried all weekend to defuse the underlying story line of his path to expected free agency this summer, has sent numerous signals all season. He requested a trade. But he loves Orlando. He wants to lead the Magic to a championship. But he prefers the Nets, Mavericks or Lakers. A TV report said Howard’s mom claimed he should stay in Orlando.
“I don’t know what she said, but that’s my mom’s opinion — that’s it,” Howard offered moments after proclaiming for the umpteenth time how much he loves Orlando, its fans and all the ships at sea.
So did all the fun, all the love, do anything to sway Howard to the merits of staying in Orlando?
“I don’t want to talk about that,” Howard said firmly. “We had a great weekend. There’s no need to talk about that stuff right now. Let’s stick with what we’ve been talking about: having a great time.”
Howard, rated a prime MVP candidate as the hometown hero, finished with nine points and 10 rebounds for the East All-Stars who rallied from 21 down and fell short, 152-149, to the West in the dunk-heavy 61st rendition of the event here last night.
For Howard, though, everything was pro-Orlando. First, he greeted the crowd.
“Welcome to my city of Orlando,” Howard said, before closing his introduction with, “I appreciate you guys from the bottom of my heart.”
And when the East’s starting center was subbed in the first quarter, he sat next to Orlando’s 85-year-old owner, Rich DeVos at courtside and put his arm around him.
“We just talked about the game and having All-Star Weekend here,” Howard said.
There were reports all night ranging from DeVos proclaiming his belief Howard would stay to Howard’s mom’s claim. The cringe moments for the Magic came with Nets point guard Deron Williams — Howard’s friend and a de facto recruiter — on the court with the 7-footer.
The Nets, salivating to enter Brooklyn with Howard and Williams, wait. The Nets have been confident of their ability to land Howard by whatever means, and have felt for a while the superstar will not be traded before the deadline. But nothing can be ruled out because Howard has delivered so many conflicting messages.
The Magic have held the hope that Howard can be persuaded to stay, so the chance of trading him by the March 15 deadline grows increasingly thin. The consensus feeling has been that whatever offers the Magic get at the deadline also can be had later. Several team execs around the league believe a pre-deadline trade is unlikely, but there are always never-say-never cautions.
One point of contention with the Magic that Howard stressed earlier this season was his lack of input in personnel decisions. Williams has given his opinions on moves by the Nets brass, who sought his ideas. Score one for the Nets, whose fondest hope is Howard wiggles his way to free agency and they can land him there.
Additionally, the Lakers are fading as a viable trade option because of Andrew Bynum’s knee issues. The 24-year-old center could not make it through the All-Star Game.
The Magic figure logic is on their side, and they also can do a sign-and-trade so Howard doesn’t leave $25-30 million on the table by accepting a four-year deal to play elsewhere.
That could be the plan. At least today.