In advance of the Lakers playing the Heat on Sunday, Dwight Howard was once again asked to respond to comments regarding his situation in Los Angeles, and whether or not all parties involved -- including Howard, Kobe Bryant, and Mike D’Antoni -- were going about things in the best way possible.
Earlier this week, it was Bryant’s comments about the team not having time for Howard’s shoulder to heal properly that Howard was forced to deal with. On Saturday, it was comments from his own father that reporters wanted Howard to respond to.
From Dave McMenamin of ESPNLosAngeles:“I’m not going to get into it,” Howard said after practice in Miami on Saturday when asked about the recent comments of his father, Dwight Howard Sr., dissecting the relationship triangle between the Lakers’ center, coach Mike D’Antoni and guard Kobe Bryant.
“My dad is a grown man. If that’s how he feels, then we’ll leave it at that. I’m not going to get into it.”
Howard’s father told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he felt it wasn’t Bryant’s place to discuss Howard’s injury, and that D’Antoni should have stepped in and regulated his players so that it would be a non-issue behind closed doors.
Bryant and D’Antoni were each equally dismissive of the situation, and both essentially refused to discuss it in any detail when the questions were lobbed in their respective directions.
And honestly, that’s exactly as it should be.
The Lakers need to stop feeding into the media nonsense and start focusing on basketball. It’s not easy to do playing with multiple superstars in the second largest media market, but in order for the team to turn things around and salvage this nightmare of a season with a playoff berth, that’s what needs to happen.
The responses on this non-issue from Howard, Bryant, and D’Antoni would lead us to believe that the team is finally getting that message.
