Dwight Howard Will Reportedly Tell Magic He Wants Out at Season's End

The Orlando Magic may have shut Dwight Howard down for the season, but they haven’t found a way to keep his camp quiet.

According to Stephen A. Smith during a Saturday segment on ESPN’s SportsCenter, the star center will be asking for a trade as soon as the Magic are eliminated from the playoffs.

Here are the significant portions of the interview (via I Am a GM):

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The minute this season is over, according to what I am hearing from his camp, you can expect Dwight Howard to tell Orlando, "Get me out of here. I don't want to be here any longer." ... When he had his back surgery, they [the organization] were talking about giving him a flight on AirTran or something like that. ... He feels as a superstar, he's been treated as a scrub.

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This is just the latest chapter in the ongoing drama in the Magic Kingdom.

It started with a trade request during the offseason, seemed to be solved by an opt-in at the trade deadline but somehow continued when Howard was outed by coach Stan Van Gundy for wanting him fired.

Stephen A. Smith’s revelations come just one day after Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated reported that Howard was upset with the front office and said that they first approached him about giving SVG the axe, not vice versa.

Orlando would be hurting itself by not trading away the disgruntled center this offseason. He’s become far too much of a distraction, a quitter and crybaby to ever win anything with this team.

Howard has blown everything out of proportion, has people constantly leaking chemistry-killing information to the media and simply does not want to be there anymore.

The relationship is beyond the point of repair, and the only way to move past this is for the franchise to reward his childish behavior by jettisoning him from its roster. The Magic cannot afford to keep him around any longer, and a split is long overdue.

Keep it tuned to B/R throughout the day for more breaking news, information and updates regarding Dwight Howard’s alleged upcoming trade request.