He loves this sappy over dramatic shit



>It will be interesting to see how this work out in Houston
>with him and Harden, basically Howard wants the alpha dog
>treatment even though he doesn't have the same mentality, I
>think Houston may still need to add a veteran pg to help
>manage that situation on the court...
>
>http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nba--rockets-give-dwight-howard-what-lakers--kobe-wouldn-t--unconditional-love-061137592.html
>
>Rockets give Dwight Howard what Lakers, Kobe wouldn't:
>unconditional love
>
>By Adrian Wojnarowski | Yahoo! Sports – 8 hours ago
>
>Within the Los Angeles Lakers, there had been a belief that a
>late January team meeting in Memphis could've been the
>beginning of Dwight Howard's future with the franchise, or
>merely the beginning of the end. No restraints, no mercy, no
>holding back. Kobe Bryant had climbed into Howard in a way
>that was startling, sobering, a moment of penetrating and
>unpleasant truths.
>Every time you trash me to teammates, it gets back to me,
>witnesses said Bryant told Howard in the visiting locker room
>of the FedEx Forum. Every time you do one of your
>impersonations when I walk out of the room, I find out.
>Everything tumbled out of Bryant, one grievance after another,
>and the Lakers coaches and players sat watching the two
>biggest personas in the room push closer together, or
>irreconcilably apart.
>Bryant had come to rage against the idea that Howard's
>clownish disposition could overtake the locker room, the
>Lakers' culture, and had warned Howard that he would never,
>ever let it happen. He hated it with Shaquille O'Neal, but
>Shaq performed on a championship plane for the Lakers and
>delivered a disposition to dominate on the floor.
>"Kobe talked to Dwight in a way that I don't think anyone one
>had ever talked to him – not in Orlando, not here, not in his
>life, I'm betting," one witness in the room told Yahoo!
>Sports. "He's been coddled, and Kobe wasn't going to coddle
>him."
>Despite Howard's recuperation from his back injury, few
>believed he had been playing with the proper passion and
>purpose – not the coaches, not the players, not opponents –
>and those within the Lakers understood Howard's most
>rebellious weapon was never confrontation, but holding back on
>the court.
>
>There were bigger issues than Bryant and Howard in the room,
>but everyone understood that this meeting – first reported in
>the Los Angeles Times – had been about the two superstars,
>about the tension that had been building with the losing,
>about the push and pull between selling Howard on staying a
>Laker, or begging him.
>In the end, Kobe Bryant didn't chase Dwight Howard out of Los
>Angeles, nor did Mike D'Antoni, nor did anyone in the employ
>of the franchise. The Lakers weren't for Howard, and Howard
>wasn't for the Lakers. Every executive and coach who has ever
>worked with Howard will tell you: He needs to be the face of
>the franchise and he needs unconditional love. Those weren't
>immediately available to him with the Lakers, and they'll be
>showered upon him in Houston now.
>"If he missed two big free throws in Orlando, it was forgotten
>in 30 minutes," one league official with ties to Howard's past
>says. "If he missed them in L.A., they talked about it for a
>week. With Dwight, he has to be the face of the franchise.
>Anything less than that, and it would be difficult for him to
>function at his highest level."
>In every way, the Houston Rockets are perfectly suited for
>Howard. He's 27 years old and needs to start competing for
>championships. He wants to be the biggest star in the
>franchise, and he gets it. He wants to be the biggest
>personality in the room, and he becomes it. He wants to play
>for a Hall of Fame big man, he says, and he has been afforded
>that with Kevin McHale.
>"The conditions need to be lined up perfectly to get the most
>out of Dwight," one team official who has history with Howard
>told Yahoo! Sports. "When he's engaged, he can carry a team
>like few else in the league. Houston is suited for him."
>Rockets general manager Daryl Morey conceived and executed an
>impeccable plan, gutting his roster, drafting undervalued
>prospects with low picks (Chandler Parsons), signing
>undervalued players (Patrick Beverley), snagging restricted
>free agents with toxic offer sheets (Omer Asik and Jeremy Lin)
>and assembling the assets to make a trade for a star guard
>(James Harden).
>
>One year ago, Howard wanted no part of the Rockets. When the
>Magic were considering trades, Howard's reps warned Houston
>that it shouldn't trade for Howard. He'd never stay there, the
>Rockets were told. Only, Morey and his assistant general
>managers, Gersson Rosas, Arturas Karnisovas and Sam Hinkie –
>now the Philadelphia 76ers' top executive – kept constructing
>a case, kept monitoring a miserable experience that offered
>hope for Houston.
>For Howard, the Rockets deliver him an adoring market with a
>rich history of great teams and franchise centers. From Moses
>Malone to Hakeem Olajuwon, Ralph Sampson to Yao Ming, Houston
>has a legacy and legitimacy. Harden made the Rockets relevant
>again, and Howard makes them contenders.
>In the final weeks and days and hours leading into Howard's
>decision, the most consistent negative recruiting pitch rivals
>made to him about Houston centered on Harden. In presentations
>and private conversations to Howard, Harden had been sold as a
>bad teammate and selfish player, multiple sources told Yahoo!
>Sports.
>"He was told would be another Kobe in his life," one
>source closely involved in the free-agent process told Yahoo!
>Sports. "It came from a lot of people, but never once from
>Dwight's mouth."
>Houston was aware it was happening and worked to diffuse the
>campaign late in the process. "It was obviously competitive
>for Dwight's services, and maybe we were looking like the lead
>team," Morey told Y! Sports. "But not only were teams
>advocating for their own position, they tried to tear us down,
>too. I didn't have any issue with it, unless it became
>personal."
>In the end, the Rockets had been exhaustive in their research,
>and manufactured a roster, a coach, a pitch and a co-star that
>made Howard want them. To walk out on the Lakers changes
>Howard's standing in history, but only if he never wins a
>championship with Houston.
>After that meeting in Memphis, the Lakers played inspired
>basketball for the rest of the regular season, and Howard
>slowly, surely started to resemble his old self. Bryant tore
>his Achilles near the end of the regular season and left the
>locker room on crutches to join the bench in Game 4 of the
>playoff series against the San Antonio Spurs – leaving the
>locker room as an ejected Howard marched into it.
>As it turned out, this was goodbye for Howard and Bryant,
>goodbye for Howard and the Lakers. For everything that Dwight
>Howard believed he could clutch out of Los Angeles, out of the
>bright lights and big city, he made the right decision for
>himself with the Houston Rockets. Kobe Bryant is out of his
>life now, and perhaps so is the confrontation that Howard
>loathes in his life.
>When Howard called Morey on Friday night to tell him he
>planned to play for the Rockets, he promised nothing but hard
>work and championship drive. No more free agency, no more
>drama, no more excuses. Howard chose Houston for himself, and
>there's no more blaming Kobe Bryant and Mike D'Antoni, Otis
>Smith and Stan Van Gundy.
>Once again, he has a franchise and a city and a chance to lord
>over it all. Once and for all, Dwight Howard needs to honor
>his word and chase a championship.
>
>