If you were watching as Time Warner Cable Sportsnet, aka ‘the new Laker channel’, debuted earlier this week then you must have been as shocked & awed as I was…and it has nothing to do with World Peace’s new infatuation with cupcakes.
James Worthy and Dwight Howard were shooting promos together. What’s next, Mitt Romney & Barack Obama sharing a hot tub after the election?
If you’ve followed the Lakers in the past year then you know that Worthy is hardly a fan of Howard’s, especially when compared to former-Laker Andrew Bynum. James, in addition to Ice Cube and Martin Knezevic (I always wanted to be mentioned w/ Cube), have been on record that LAL just may have been better off with ‘Drew’ instead of Dwight.
I admit, maybe that’s a stretch…but definitely the argument was solid. It was a marginal improvement at center and one that may not have warranted such a major shake-up. {I, personally, thought that Pau Gasol & his $20M/yr salary should go first…but oh well.}
“I like Andrew Bynum,” Worthy told reporters back in July. “He’s young and just as good as Dwight right now. He’s getting better. Dwight … to me, he’s too much gab and too much talking. I’m old school. I want to see something done on the floor. He does all this media stuff, flip-flopping. You don’t get respect from veteran players when you do that kind of stuff. They just want you to play. They want to see what you can do out there.”
The flip-flopping in question was basically what Howard did all of last season as he kept sending mixed messages throughout the year on his future in Orlando. It was a weekly joke on sports shows and also an embarrassment for the league as a whole. Worthy was exactly right…DH12 lost the respect of a great many NBA people in the last 365 days.
But wait….after the recent blockbuster trade, Worthy started to soften on his stance: “I wasn’t a fan of Howard.”
The key word here being wasn’t.
Sounds like the tiny nucleus of a flip-flop, doesn’t it?
Well, on the live broadcast this week James Worthy now had this to say (in a loud and energetic tone as if Jerry Buss was behind the camera): ‘Dwight Howard is a super star. He brings an enthusiasm to be great every minute out on the court. As good as Andrew Bynum is, he’s not at that level. He may be one day, but not right now. Dwight has been this way since the beginning.’ (I may be paraphrasing a bit as I’m typing from memory…..Time Warner & DirecTV continue to argue over $ so I had to watch this at a friend’s house).
In the big picture I guess none of this really matters. Dwight is officially in L.A. and he’s already taking the city (and team) to another level. All this without even playing a single game.
The NBA decided this week to punish ‘flopping’ in the NBA. But I say we also start dishing out fines for ‘flip-flopping’…..before James Worthy and Dwight Howard strike again.
The City of Angels has enough drama as it is.
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