Every sport needs villains. After a while you get tired of watching soft drink-shilling pop tarts smiling for the cameras and hugging children. We need people we can aim our vitriol at. We need someone or some thing to root against, be it Duke basketball or the Dallas Cowboys or Barry Bonds. Plotting the demise of those that make our blood boil is almost as entertaining as cheering on our boys(and, depending on who you ask, both feelings might be equal).
In the basketball world, fans tend to aim their disgust at individuals more so than teams(though the Lakers rank high amongst sports' most despised franchises). Coming into this season, the most hated man on the face of the hardwood was Miami Heat superstar LeBron James, who famously lead the city of Cleveland down the primrose path before ripping their hearts out on national television via a unnecessary, self-serving "special" where he stalled for a half hour before announcing his intentions to ditch the Cavs to "take his talents to South Beach". Cleveland will never forgive King James for that and there are many outside of Ohio who have the same sentiments as Cavs fans. Before LBJ was Public Enemy #1, fans adopted Lakers guard Kobe Bryant as the NBA's John Dillinger. As if a well-publicized rape charge wasn't enough to make people's skin crawl, Kobe had storied brouhaha with lovable Laker legend Shaquille O'Neal and went on a momentary rampage where he attempted to whine his way out of L.A. unless the Lakers put a team that fit his liking(oddly enough, Kobe wanted a championship caliber team much like the one he just destroyed with Shaq). "The Decision" didn't quite take Kobe off the hook but that public screw-up by James combined with Kobe winning a couple rings without "The Diesel" changed the momentum a bit.
However, much like The Akron Hammer bailed out The Black Mamba from the NBA's hot seat, James might now find himself to be the beneficiary of a momentum shift in the battle to become basketball's biggest bad guy. In fact, he might end up being usurped by two contenders, one of which a very familiar face.
While LeBron has been busy putting on another season for the ages and Kobe continues to fight off Father Time by threatening to win a scoring title when his body is more broken down than a '86 Volvo, the center of attention(no pun intended) these past few months has been Orlando Magic big man Dwight Howard. Coming into this lockout-shortened season, D-12 was a mortal lock to be skipping out of Orlando and into the friendly confines of either Los Angeles or somewhere in the Metropolitan area(Brooklyn/New Jersey). Instead, Howard went on a five-month crusade in which he curb-stomped any bit of respect or credibility the basketball-loving public had for him by routinely flip-flopping his intentions, plotting behind closed doors to get his head coach canned and then sulking to the point that teammates accused him of mailing it in. Now, I'm sure, if given a mulligan, Howard would push for the team to move him before the trade deadline and not waver off of his demand to get out of town. However, Howard found himself caught in an internal struggle with himself. He wanted out of Orlando, but he wanted to do it in a way where he wouldn't piss off the fans in Orlando that stuck behind him since he came to town a few years ago. He wanted his exit to be more like Chris Paul's exile from New Orleans, bittersweet yet understandable, and not like LeBron's, with fans burning jerseys and booing til their lungs collapsed. So, Howard found himself answering constant questions about his future, wanting to tell the world he wanted out but not wanting to come off as a complete douche bag. The result? The Magic forced Doomsday into a game of chicken, which they inevitably won at the deadline and forced Howard into signing an extension for next season but only after he exhausted any chance of a trade with his constant unwillingness to make a decision on his future. Because of that, Howard went from being a conflicted star who wanted to leave on good terms to being cast as a coach killer who got outed for being a diva behind closed doors who threw his teammates and head coach Stan Van Gundy under the bus while demanding the preferential superstar treatment he felt he deserved as the man at the center of trade talks for the last 12 months.
How the next few months play out for Howard remain to be seen. For now, he's going to spend the rest of the season in a suit and on the mend from a poorly timed back surgery(Poorly timed because it came after reports were flying left and right confirming Howard wanted Van Gundy gone and accusing Howard of giving up on the team, a claim he can no longer defuse from the bench) and being a foil for angry fans. Lucky for Dwight, another target has emerged to be the target of our arrows. The Headcase Formerly Known As Ron Artest now known as Metta World Peace caught a Glen Davis sized amount of shit over the weekend for delivering an elbow to the side of Oklahoma City Thunder guard James Harden's head that would make "Macho Man" Randy Savage cringe. Ron/Metta claims the elbow was unintentional but the question remains why Artest/Peace insisted upon throwing 'bows in the first place? Was he that gassed up from throwing one down that he had to go into full freakout mode? Or was this yet another in a long line of inexplicably foolish antics that have become Captain Queensbridge's calling card his entire career? In a sports era where concussion awareness is at an all-time high, could Artest pick a worse time to go Dee-Bo upside Harden's dome? The league has suspended Artest/Peace for seven games, but if it was up to me, Artest would be done for 2012 with his availability for next season being up for review pending good behavior. This is the man who has become more known for charging into the stands after fans, badgering refs, bullying opponents, giving spaced-out interviews and being a general nuisance to every team he's been on. You forget that he's one of the game's premier perimeter defenders and underrated combo guards. All you think about when you hear the name "Ron Artest" or "Metta World Peace"(Side note: could there be a more ill-fitting new moniker for a loon like Artest than "World Peace"? That would be like George Zimmerman changing his name to "Racial Equality") is "That guy's craaazzzy!".
That being said, at least Artest knows what he is and he's never shied away from it. Sure, the name change may have been a ploy by him to convince people he's turned over a new leaf, but who was really buying that anyway? Artest is a lot of things. Fraud isn't one of them. The same can't be said about Howard. That brings me to my ultimate question and, in essence, the reason behind this blog: Is it better to have a once-respectable superstar who turns out to be a me-first prima donna that sabotages the franchise with his indecisiveness or a knucklehead with a reputation for chicanery whom the locker room knows they'll have to keep in check if they hope to contend? With Artest, you know what you're getting: solid defense, some ill-advised jumpers, about 30-40 technicals and the looming probability of a suspension. In Howard, you get the game's best center and two-way threat who also can't be trusted because he can flip on his teammates and coaches the minute he sees greener pastures. You want a star who needs to be coached or needs to be babied?
This summer, Howard will get his wish either via Van Gundy's inevitable canning or a trade out of town(possibly both). In the meantime, is there a better potential storyline than a Howard-less Magic team's quest for the title in the upcoming playoffs? What better way to stick it the diva who proclaimed that his teammates weren't good enough for someone of his stature than to win a ring without him.....while he's watching from the bench? How can you not root for Orlando as a underdog in a hardly-stacked Eastern Conference? Do I think they'll get out of the first round? Hell no! Will it be entertaining to watch them try and will I laugh giddily if they make each round a series? Damn straight. As for Artest, he'll do his time and he'll come back to a Lakers team that still has an outside chance at a title. He'll go back to his role as the NBA's biggest wild card and the team will rally around him to keep him from going, well, Ron Artest on somebody.
That, to me, speaks wonders about how the tables have turned for Dwight Howard. He's managed to become more of a cancerous pariah than a well-known crazy man who just tried to decapitate an opponent with a bionic elbow. Congratulations, Dwight. In your quest to be treated like a superstar like LeBron, you've managed to become Public Enemy #1......just like LeBron.
Making matters worse, not even Ron Artest can save you from that hot seat, big fella.
No comments:
Post a Comment