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August 13, 2012
The 'Dwightmare' is over
ESPN New York
by Mike Mazzeo
As we'd been predicting for months (years?), Dwight Howard will not be playing for the Brooklyn Nets. Not this year. Not next year. Not ever.
Well, Nets fans, the "Dwightmare" is over.
Multiple sources told ESPN.com that Dwight Howard will become a Laker -- and, just like that, a new NBA superpower is born.
Here's how the four-team blockbuster trade breaks down:
Lakers get: D-12
Nuggets get: Andre Iguodala
76ers get: Andrew Bynum, Jason Richardson
Magic get: Arron Afflalo, Al Harrington, Nikola Vucevic, Moe Harkless, a protected first-rounder from each of the teams
The Nets had been trying to get Howard, dating back to last offseason. They tried, tried and tried again.
Related coverage...
NY Daily News, Brooklyn Nets' Deron Williams lost interest in Dwight Howard sweepstakes well before Thursday's trade to the Lakers
Yeah, right.
For the first time in over a year, Deron Williams and the Nets operated without the haloed hope that somehow, some way, Dwight Howard would land in Brooklyn.
But for Williams, the ideal of the Howard shortcut had already become tiresome and disappointing, long before the best center in the NBA was shipped to the Lakers in a four-team, 12-player blockbuster.
...“Mentally I wasn’t in the Dwight sweepstakes anymore. It got kinda old. I’m happy for him. I know he wanted to get out of Orlando. He did that and he’s going to a great franchise so I wish him the best of luck.”
...A league source told the Daily News that a stumbling block in negotiations was lingering animosity stemming from the Magic’s belief the Nets illegally contacted Howard in December without Orlando’s permission.
Posted by eric at August 13, 2012 10:59 AM