“They started it!”
This is what professional business negotiations have, once again, turned into, in the NBA.
A day after David Stern outed Dwight Howard agent Dan Fegan as the source of leaks concerning Howard’s meeting with the Orlando Magic this week, Fegan hit the media again, this time with regards to why he leaked details of the meeting.
It wasn’t his fault!
The Magic started it! He swears!
From ESPN, in an email that was no doubt distributed across the board:“On the morning prior to Wednesday’s supposedly confidential meeting between Dwight Howard and Rob Hennigan, there were media reports stating a meeting was taking place later that same day,” wrote agent Dan Fegan of LaGardere Unlimited in an email. “Prior to the actual meeting, Dwight’s business manager and I met with Rob, reminded him that we had not requested the meeting, had been reluctant to take it and were concerned that the Magic had leaked that a meeting was taking place.
“Both during and after the meeting, we continued to get communications from the media telling us that they had confirmation that the meeting was occurring and/or had taken place. After the meeting, some media requested comments on information they allegedly already had on what had taken place in the meeting. I want to stress that none of the information the reporters had about the meeting at this point came from us.
“After receiving these media inquiries, I called Rob and left several messages expressing concern that what had occurred in the meeting was not going to be accurately reported -- as had happened on previous occasions -- and that we were going to respond to the media inquiries to make sure that reports were accurate. To a limited extent, that is what we did.”
via Dwight Howard’s agent, Dan Fegan, confirms David Stern’s accusation - ESPN Los Angeles.
Oh, he just wanted to clear things up. Just to make sure things were accurate.
Got it.
/eyebrow raise
Look, the Magic aren’t innocent in all this. They’re playing games through the media. They’ve just been substantially more quiet about it than the Nets and Howard’s team. But if Fegan’s leaking this information, the reporters are forced to report on it, because it’s a credible source. It’s his agent, who was at the meeting. The problem is that that source is transparently and emphatically trying to shift the public conversation in one direction: Dwight’s way. That’s his job. This isn’t Fegan’s fault, either. He’s doing his job to protect and serve his client.
But if one side says something happened in the meeting, and I’m sure it was “accurate” from their perspective, why not get the other side’s take? Why not get what the Magic have to say about it?
Because the Magic know they don’t gain anything by leaking that information. Even if they did leak that Howard was meeting with the team, that’s an innocuous leak. There’s no real gain for them there. “Team meets with player they have on contract.” But the details are what caused an uproar. The Magic aren’t leaking their side, they’re not leaking that they met with Howard but did not meet to try and convince him to stay, or anything about the intent of the meeting, which was something Fegan let loose which apparently they interpreted as Hennigan trying to convince Howard to stay, when he’s clearly not. The Magic aren’t leaking more harmful information about what Howard did.
It hurts their leverage. It limits their ability to trade him. It keeps them stuck in this never-ending cycle of misery everyone, including the media at this point, is trapped in.
The Magic don’t need to meet with Howard. Howard doesn’t need to meet with the Magic. No one needs to leak anything. The Magic need to work to find the deal they need, get it, trade him, and forget Dwight Howard ever happened to the franchise.
Such a shame for something that brought so many people in Florida joy for so many years.
It is kind of weird that the fourth wall has been broken with Fegan himself becoming the story. Don’t see that happen much. Then again, nothing about this process of holding a team hostage to try and force Howard’s way to Brooklyn has been normal.
