For years, Dwight Howard and Deron Williams talked about teaming up. They realized these kinds of super teams are the only way to compete with the Heat in the East.
And it almost came together. Williams was in Brooklyn (well, New Jersey soon to be Brooklyn) and Howard was trying to force a trade there, but the Magic screwed it up by not wanting Brook Lopez (or to send Howard where he wanted to go). Then Howard really screwed it up by waiving his early termination option — once he did that he lost a lot of trade leverage. Brooklyn’s management got tired of screwing around with it, went and got Joe Johnson and kept Lopez.
Williams is reportedly not thrilled with Howard waiving his leverage and not coming to Brooklyn.
Dwight Howard doesn’t care. Here’s his quote, thanks to Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News, via Sulia:
Howard is in a position not to care because did okay for himself in the end. After getting over the whole Shaq footsteps thing, he landed on a loaded team that can contend now and plans to rebuild around him in the coming years. And in a major media market. And he’s still near a Disney resort.
D-Will, he’s on a Nets team off to a nice start in the East (6-2), but still a team nobody really trusts in going all that far when the pressure really comes. But it’s another good landing spot, even if we question their roster construction.
And do you really think at the end of the day they’re not friends anymore?