We already heard rumors that Dwight Howard is “intrigued” by another team, so there’s no way to tell right now what team D12 is leaning towards in his free agency…BUT Dwight did make his feelings known about a certain person with the Lakers organization before starting his offseason. Check out who it is after the jump…
*KOBE TWEET ABOVE IN GALLERY*
Via Dave McMenamin at ESPN:
Nearly three weeks have passed since Howard had his exit interview with the Lakers and there’s been barely a peep out of Howard since.
While he hasn’t had anything to say to the press, Howard had a lot to say to Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak back before the relative silence, however.
Howard was one of several Lakers — Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol being the most noteworthy — to have an extended separate meeting with the GM after his exit interview with both Kupchak and D’Antoni, multiple sources confirmed to ESPNLosAngeles.com.
According to sources with knowledge of the situation, part of the discussion between Howard and Kupchak centered around Howard’s frustration with Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni — particularly how the center felt marginalized as the coach looked to Bryant and Steve Nash for leadership and suggestions and discounted Howard’s voice.
Kupchak left the meeting with Howard undeterred, telling reporters he was “hopeful” and “optimistic” that Howard would be back with the Lakers next season and beyond, yet there have been several developments in the last couple weeks that could have an effect on Howard’s decision.
Howard has not conducted any interviews since the standard exit interview with the press and has only tweeted six times in that span — one tweet containing a silly tongue twister joke, two tweets from a ’50s-style theme restaurant, two sponsored tweet promoting contact lenses and one tweet on Mother’s Day — so there have been no public clues about what decision the pending free agent will make.
—Kobe Bryant did tweet yesterday about Dwight – see his tweet in the gallery above—
The question remains as to how much of a hurdle D’Antoni’s presence could prove to be in Howard’s chances of remaining a Laker.
“We had to just sell out to whatever he wanted, whether we liked it or not,” Howard said of D’Antoni following his exit interview. “We had to do what was going to benefit the team, and being one of the leaders on the team, I had to make sure I kept the guys in line to what the coach wanted us to do.”
A source said Howard was very careful with his public comments about D’Antoni after the season, wary of attracting a “coach killer reputation” after how things ended in Orlando with Stan Van Gundy losing his job. Despite the frustration Howard had with D’Antoni last season, there is nothing to suggest the partnership is irreparable. “It’s not a, ‘It’s me or Mike,’ situation for Dwight,” said a source.
