Dwight Howard's Personality Shift in Light of Constant Free Agency Questions

It provides a little moment of comic relief that Dwight Howard would say that he would become a free agent in 2012 if Orlando did not win a championship.

It is kind of like one of those moments where someone says, “I’ll be your friend when hell freezes over.” By the knowledge of everyone standing on solid ground, the likelihood of hell sprouting icicles is equal to that of the Orlando Magic team magically growing the wings necessary to fly the organization to the mountaintop.

That just does not seem to be in the stars for the Magic, and unfortunately, Dwight Howard has to bear the brunt of whatever legacy Orlando is planting at the moment. While the world is more than sure that his current team will not meet the standards necessary to beat anyone in the finals, the front that he is putting on to shield his eagerness to leave is even more puzzling.

Following the Miami Heat model will not give players as much disdain from fans as it did LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. People were already not too fond of James and it seems as if his move did nothing but install a greater hate in the souls of fans who were on the fence or already on Train LeBrick.

Dwight Howard is making himself more vulnerable to that type of Orlando reception the longer this draws out and the more he allows men and women from the press to become his verbal diary.

Howard is known for stepping into the spotlight but never in a way that could possibly offend the men he played next to or the crowd he played for. He has become a media microphone’s dream because the more reporters poke at him for answers about his possible free agency in 2012, the more of a vindictive response he gives regarding the performance of his teammates and the actions of Orlando Magic as far as recruitment.

Although LeBron James never came out entirely and said that the players he played with in Cleveland were not good enough, everything he said afterwards was interpreted as such and rightfully so. Dwight Howard, on the other hand, is sitting down pouring his soul out about how he needs new people beside him.

They may not be voicing their opinions publicly, but I am pretty sure no one playing with him feels like they are not being slighted in the constant reports leaking out about the future of the franchise.

It is startling how similar his situation is growing in the shadow of LeBron’s move to South Beach and Howard is manning the barreling train. I know there has to be an agent or public relations assistant to tell him to step away from the cameras for a moment before he talks his way out of the fan’s hearts and pockets, into their words of anger and disappointment.

The bad guy routine would not work for him. At least I do not believe so.