With no shortage of microphones extended his way during his first season in Hollywood, he's made sure his Lakers' script has been drama free. Well, free in the sense that the observers have had an easy time identifying the villain in the story.
Even with Kristine Leahy, an anchor for L.A.'s CBS affiliate KCAL, lobbing underhand softballs at Howard during a one-on-one interview, the big man still found a way to take a mighty hack at his former teammates and dig himself in a deeper hole with his current ones.
Howard rebuked the "coach killer" reputation that followed him out of Orlando—saying nothing of the fact that his former coach (Stan Van Gundy) and general manager (Otis Smith) were both shown the door just months before Howard orchestrated his own departure. Nor of the fact that his coach had gone on record confirming that Howard wanted him fired during perhaps one of the most awkward basketball interviews in recent history.
Howard went on to describe his former Orlando Magic teammates as a "team full of people no one wanted." Whether or not the two teammates that accompanied Howard from Orlando to L.A. (Earl Clark and Chris Duhon) were among the unwanted players was, not surprisingly, not asked of the big man.
His comments perhaps would have been more damning if not for the fact that Howard had already extinguished all bridges with the franchise where he spent his first eight NBA seasons. He reportedly nearly came to blows with co-captain Jameer Nelson in the final months of the 2011-12 season, who was said to be one of "several" teammates hoping that Howard would be traded (via Alex Kennedy of hoopsworld.com).
And he's seemingly brought on those same sentiments from his L.A...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Los Angeles Lakers
