NBA Rumors: Dwight Howard Foolishly Plays Dumb With Media

“Dwight Howard trade rumors” should be the name of a new soap opera on daytime television. The ongoing saga seems to have a new twist and turn every week.

Howard indirectly made it clear he won’t be re-signing with the Orlando Magic when his contract expires at the end of the season and even put out a three team list of teams he would accept a trade to.

If your team isn’t the L.A. Lakers, New Jersey Nets or Dallas Mavericks…then sorry ‘bout you.

Now that the season has started and Howard is still donning a Magic uniform, the questions about his future haven’t stopped, especially when you consider Thursday’s opponent.

The Magic will be at home hosting the New Jersey Nets.

Will Howard be hanging out with the Nets before the game? Does he have plans with Jay-Z afterwards? When asked about the upcoming game by the Orlando Sentinel, Howard offered absolutely nothing:

"

We're not talking about the Nets right now. We're talking about the Magic. That's the team I play for. There's no need to talk about any other team, who is interested in them or not. So I'm not going to get into a discussion about it.

"

Yawn.

Howard is taking a page out of the Carmelo Anthony playbook, pretending like there is nothing going on right now. Everyone that follows the NBA knows about his trade request and attempting to shove it under the rug is foolish.

The Nets' home crowd began a “We want Dwight!” chant in the second half of their 106-70 loss to the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday, desperate to secure the three-time Defensive Player of the Year. Howard even told the Sentinel that he was watching the game, but had it on mute and didn’t hear the chants.

Gimme’ a break.

Howard’s agent has been given permission to speak with the teams his client wants to play for and you can bet he’s working the phones every day, with his last call of the evening going to Howard with the latest update.

It’s time for Howard to stop pretending like everything is sunny in the Sunshine State and start talking about the situation publicly. What’s wrong with telling the truth? It would be a breath of fresh air in an era where Twitter breaks up every single behind the scenes secret of the NBA.

His refusal to answer the question has forced reporters to ask his teammates and I’m sure that doesn’t bode well for the locker room.

The situation continues to get worse and Howard is the one to blame at this point.