Dwight Howard: Is He Still Superman?

 

                Who is Dwight Howard? The super human athlete we once referred to as “Superman” has more closely resembled a villain, terrorizing every team and coach he comes into contact with. The most coveted big-man in all of basketball has chosen Houston as his destination for the next four years. Though, with Dwight’s track record of switching teams it seems likely that he won’t retire a Houston Rocket unless they somehow starting winning championships. Nonetheless, it seems a lot longer than 2009 that Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic lost to Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers four games to one in the 2009 NBA Finals. After that season, Dwight’s relationship with the Magic was never the same. Howard put the finishing touches on the destruction of the Magic franchise by stabbing head coach Stan Van Gundy in the back after telling the Magic front office that he wanted Van Gundy out in order for him to stay in Orlando. This wasn’t enough for Dwight though, and he demanded a trade from the Magic, after Van Gundy was canned,  in one of the weirdest NBA “holdouts” of all time. Eventually, Howard got what he wanted and was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers, his suspected dream team; though maybe he really did want to go to the Nets and win one for Jay-Z.

After joining the Lakers with future Hall-of-Famer Steve Nash last season, the Lakers were predicted by many as the favorites to represent the Western Conference in the NBA Finals. Finally the NBA was going to get what they had craved for the last five seasons, a LeBron vs. Kobe Finals matchup for the ages. However, after just five games the Lakers fired head coach Mike Brown and hired Mike D’Antoni, who could never figure out how to properly use Dwight in his offensive run-and-gun scheme. The Lakers struggled the entire season and Howard and Kobe never seemed to be able to come together on or off the court. After Kobe injured his Achilles late in the season, Dwight carried the Lakers to the eighth seed of the playoffs where they were swept by the Spurs. Shortly after the season, speculation surrounded that Howard might leave the Lakers franchise in search of a new beginning with less pressure. Howard’s exit from the city of angels wasn’t much prettier than his escape of Orlando, and L.A. for the first time in recent memory had a superstar willingly choose to leave their team in search of something better. Howard jumping ship to the Rockets appears to be the first major warning sign that the Lakers reign of dominance in basketball is all but over. The Clippers have upgraded their roster immensely and without Howard it appears as if the Lakers are for the first time the clear sidekick to their cross-town rivals. We witnessed the Boston Celtics clean house this season, maybe it’s time for the Lakers to do the same; obviously without losing Kobe Bryant.

                Now Howard is with the Rockets and the state of the NBA has changed forever. Houston now looks to be a major player out in the Wild West with one of the youngest teams in the league and one of the best scorers in James Harden.  The Rockets haven’t had this superb of an inside-outside duo since Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming carried the franchise.

                What will be interesting to see is if Dwight Howard can transform into the most dominant big man that we have expected him to be for quite some time. There are no more excuses for Howard, who has seemed to get a pass on his erratic behavior because of his infectious smile and grace. Howard escaped from the pressure of being the next great L.A. big man, but now has to face the pressure of being compared to Hakeem Olajuwon and Dikembe Mutombo. Can Dwight Howard overcome the pressure he and the media set himself up for? We all will find out the answer next season.

                What I have noticed, especially with this Dwight Howard scenario, is that the NBA is now being controlled by the players. The NBA has evolved into a different type of beast ever since LeBron James left to take his talents to South Beach in the summer of 2010. Since then, the NBA has resembled something of an arms race, in which teams are stockpiling super stars to compete with the premier contenders.

                In my opinion, there are a lot of big men who are more valuable than Dwight Howard right now. Seven-foot two-inch center Roy Hibbert of the Indiana Pacers just came off an All-Star season and Eastern Conference Finals appearance. Joakim Noah was a first-team all-defensive selection and was the heart and soul of a Bulls team that challenged the Miami Heat in the second round, even without MVP Derrick Rose. My point being, Dwight Howard isn’t the lone dominant big man in the NBA and at times he appears to be more baggage than production.

 What makes Dwight Howard different from all other big men is that he is the only super star seven-footer who is media friendly and marketable. I will admit, I believe that Howard is an extreme talent and has the potential to carry a team to a title. However, I believe that Howard still hasn’t fully recovered from his back injuries that have hindered his explosiveness. For that reason, I believe Houston is still a piece or two away from making any real noise in the playoffs simply for the fact that the Western Conference is going to be perhaps the most competitive its ever been in the history of the NBA. Will “Superman” be able to deliver the Larry O’Brien trophy back to Houston, or will he slowly infect the Rockets similar to the way he has treated the Magic and Lakers?  

The Ugly Truth of the NCAA

 

            Why do we love college sports? I think the answer is quite simple really. As Americans, we love college sports because of our loyalty to the schools we grew up with. We root for the schools we’ve graduated from and the universities we admire.

Unlike professional sports, collegiate athletics is the most basic of all sport. No contracts. No free agency. No labor disputes between the players and owners.  For these reasons, I loved college athletics because it was refreshing to see players who competed purely for the love of the game. All seemed perfect, until I asked myself, “How can the NCAA be a multi-billion dollar industry, yet still claim to be a “non-profit” organization?!”

            Let’s take a look down memory lane at how the NCAA was formed before we come to the present situation. The NCAA was formed in 1906 by President Theodore Roosevelt as a consequence of the many injuries and casualties that came about from student-run football teams. They had no rules and no organization. So, Roosevelt held two White House meetings with collegiate presidents to discuss how to change the rules of football so that it could stay a sport. On March 31, 1906 the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (IAAUS) was formed as a rules-making body to protect all collegiate athletics. In 1910, the IAAUS officially changed its name to the NCAA.

            That was then. This is now.  

The NCAA is defined as a nonprofit association that represents more than 430,000 student-athletes today. However, in April of 2010 the NCAA signed a 14-year, $10.8 billion deal with Turner Broadcasting and CBS Sports for the rights of the men’s Division 1 basketball tournament. According to the NCAA, the projections for the 2012-2013 revenue are $797 million dollars with $702 million coming from media rights agreements with CBS Sports, ESPN, etc. Does that sound like a non-profit organization?

Do you think the NCAA’s contract with CBS and Turner Broadcasting is extreme? Look at what the NCAA pays their president, university presidents, and coaches! According to USA Today, NCAA president Mark Emmert collected nearly $400,000 in his first three months on the job. That’s 1.6 million a year, which is more than the president of the United States makes! What makes the NCAA even slimier is that Emmert collected nearly $23,000 in non-taxable benefits according to USA Today. Does that seem like the president of a non-profit organization?

How much money do the top universities have you might ask? In 2008, ESPN requested the financial forms of all the major colleges to see their revenue and expenses. Alabama was the number one overall college for both revenue ($123,769,841) and expenses ($123,370,004). What I found most shocking is that Alabama pays their entire athletic coaching staff ($13,118,559), which is almost five million more dollars than the $8,824,492 in student tuition costs!

That’s not even all of the massive amounts of cash circulating through the NCAA. What about all those college football video games you might ask? I always found it weird when I played NCAA Football 2005 and Reggie Bush didn’t have his name on the back of his jersey. I later found out that was because legally speaking, that wasn’t Reggie Bush, even though all his physical characteristics and skills spoke otherwise. I mean c’mon the guy even had the “619” San-Diego area code eye black on his character!

 According to Mark Fainaru-Wada, an investigative writer for espn.com, EA Sports has made well over $500 million since 2005 for its sales of the NCAA football and basketball games; with basketball only accounting for ten percent of those earnings. If you don’t understand what blockbuster TV contracts, enormous non-taxable salaries, and ground-breaking video game deals have to do with college sports, you’re not alone.  

So, why is it that there are always violations against the players and athletic programs and never any for the presidents and financial supporters who make millions off of their talent?

The answer to your question is that the NCAA is a cash-filled piñata and everyone wants to take a swing. Let everyone make money off of these athletes talents now before roughly only a few percent will make it into professional sports.

            Let’s take a look at the opposite end of the spectrum and discuss some of the recent disturbing violations that college athletes and programs have been involved in.

The most disturbing act of recent memory occurred on November 5, 2011 when the country discovered that the Penn State football staff turned a blind eye to the monstrosity of rapist Jerry Sandusky and his 52 charges of molestation with younger boys. Maybe the biggest shock of all was that this happened at Penn State and under the supervision of legendary football coach Joe Paterno who was seen as an example of sportsmanship and class to millions of people. Paterno was a coach at Penn State from 1960 to 2012 and was portrayed as the leader of a university that could do no wrong. This in itself is the best example I can recall that proves that even the most idealized leaders in all of sports cannot be trusted.

Just this year, there have been countless head scratching violations that make you question the purity of sports. Take the Rutgers basketball program. Head basketball coach Mike Rice was caught on camera shoving players in a violent manner and calling them gay slurs on numerous accounts! This caused a shockwave throughout the university, causing the Athletic Director Tim Pernetti to resign as well.

Another big violation by one of the biggest universities in the country is Auburn. In 2011, Cam Newton led the Tigers to their first championship in over fifty years! It isn’t until now that we find out the true story, which is that nine players were ruled academically ineligible but were allowed to play due to a lack of supervision from the coaches and staff. Also, players who were seen as potential draft picks reportedly were given money to stay in school rather than go to the NFL!

This shows that when the money gets bigger, the scandals get bigger, and people will literally do ANYTHING to protect the sanctity of something we value more than anything in America… winning.

            The NCAA is a great example of American capitalism in that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. It’s a joke to believe that only the athletes and coaches are corrupted by power in college sports. The whole damn system is a joke from top to bottom! So if we are to blame the athletes and coaches for ruining the purity of college sports, why not include the actual people who are paid to prevent these scandals from taking place?   

 

 

-          Jordan Santos reporting for “ON THE SIDELINES” on 1talknetwork.com