In 1958 comic book writer Otto Binder and artist George Papp wanted to give one dimensional comic book characters another side for the reader to see. While coming up with ideas they thought readers would like to see what the opposite of characters did and how they lived. It was with this idea in mind that they came up with the Bizzaro World. They put the idea into motion by having a scientist build a duplicating ray which he used on Superboy, creating an opposite mirror image of Superboy, only instead of fighting for good he reeked havoc on the city. Superboy eventually had to kill his bizzaro copy and we did not see this duplicating story line happen again until Lex Luther decided to make a copy of Superman.
Bizzaro Superman was the exact opposite of Superman looking to destroy instead of build, to bring chaos where there was peace, and looking to bring despair to where there was once hope. I do not know the exact moment of when it happened but I do know that NO one (in my era) has fallen from grace faster then Dwight Howard. Dwight Howard was that player that was impossible to hate. Long before the events that transpired in Eagle Colorado people hated Kobe Bryant. Just as many people hated Lebron James before he announced he was going to take his “talents” to South Beach. But people really didn’t have a reason to hate Dwight, he never claimed to be The Chosen One, or the next best thing to Michael, he just claimed to have fun and play ball.
No one has a bigger smile in the NBA then Dwight Howard but that smile has been missing through out the past month and a half. It has been replaced with quite interviews, back biting, and he said she said types of rumors. First he wanted out of Orlando, then he wanted to stay. He told some people he was leaving and others he was staying. Of course while in his position you could see the dilemma of not wanting to follow the footprints left in the now dried cement on the path that Lebron James took. Dwight’s problem was that he tried to make everyone happy, but while doing so, he crossed so many paths with mixed signals he wound up pissing everyone off.
Most recently, after information got back to Stan Van Gundy that Dwight asked to have him fired, Stan was interviewed before the Knick game and spilled the beans. This is one of the most awkward interviews (next to Jim Rome and “Chris Everette”) that I have ever seen.
-First, notice how Stan has absolutely no problem talking about the situation, probably because he is one of the better coaches in the league and could find another job coaching in a heart beat. Stan expresses the fact that players (like Dwight) will speak their mind to management and then show up to games and practices playing the no comment, I don’t know what your talking about card. He knows Dwight better then anyone on that team and he knows the type of person Dwight is.
-Next Dwight slides in and tries to play it off like, look everybody we are friends, and he has no idea that the media was just talking about him, and that Stan confirmed what he was told by management. Then Stan fires a few, “Thats what I just said” lines right at Dwight without Dwight taking the hint. And finally, just like we saw Negrodamus on the Dave Chappelle Show predict the future, we see Stan’s earlier description of a player trying to dodge questions and not face the music.
To see this player that has so much potential and that was so much fun to watch, take such a nose dive in the public eye, leaves me to ask:
Yo! Dwight, what happened?
Was it the greed of a huge contract that the Magic can offer, that led you to this point?
Was it fear of not wanting to follow in the steps of other players (Lebron James, Lebron James, Lebron James) and walk away from your city?
Or was it the fact that you really just don’t know what the hell you want your legacy to look like when all is said and done?
I personally think its a mixture of all three of those questions, which leads me conclude that Dwight is confused. So since I have the chance to look at this from a fans prospective allow me to give him some advice (CAUTION advice may be slightly tailored to benefit the Lakers since I am a Laker fan, but it makes the most sense to me):
Dwight, I read that the reasons you did not want to come to the Lakers was because of two factors. One, you had a media fight with Kobe and did not want to come to a team that was not going to be considered YOURS. And two, because you did not want to follow in the foot steps of Shaq and move from Orlando to L.A. in pursuit of a ring. To those reasons I ask this of you, WHO CARES? Kobe at the most has 2 more years of prime performance (as I type this I do realize he is going for the scoring title this year and he is in his 16th year in the league, so don’t judge me) in his tank. After that he will be looking to start taking it a bit easier focusing more on jump shots and less on his penetration game to possibly shoot for that all time scoring record, or just pass MJ. He will need a big man down low to feed and take some attention off of him, leaving him more open shots. This team could easily fade from the Kobe era to the Dwight era while on the way picking up possibly two rings.
Next, and what I think is the most ridiculous, you don’t want to follow in the foot steps of Shaq? Really?! The man has 2 MVP trophies, 3 Finals MVP trophies, 4 rings, 15 All-Star game appearances, and he can honestly say that EVERY team he went to, he was the deciding factor as to their success. Why not follow that career path, you already followed him by taking his nickname? Hell, the man is a Hall of Fame candidate no question about it. What do you think you can honestly do through out your career that Shaq did not do? He was more physical than you could ever dream of. You both suck at the free throw line, you both have NO jump shot, you both have certain skills that have enabled you to be labeled as the best big men in the game (during your eras). Do you think that you can find a better team to go to that is willing to go over the cap to help bring in supporting players like we are? Because guess what YOU CAN’T.
Now I know there are lots of other teams that he can be successful with, but I do not think that he will have as many doors open to him that will enable him to shed the bizzaro label and return to being the big kid having fun playing ball, as he will in L.A. Not to mention the longer he gives Bynum the chance to solidify his spot as a dominant big man the tougher it will be for people to see the obvious benefits of obtaining him. I WANT to cheer for Dwight I WANT to see Superman fly, I mean that guy has one of those freak of nature types of bodies. He needs to stop worrying about what people think and pleasing everyone and just do what we wants. I really do hope the best for him even if that doesn’t include the purple and gold.
And if I haven’t given him enough points to consider, let me finish with a few examples of what doors were opened for Shaq while in L.A. that may just help swing the vote: KAZAAM, STEEL, TWISM, The Dunk Man, and the list goes on and on (but not to much longer). Just kidding.