After the past year of will he stay or will he go, Dwight Howard has officially left the building....while most are glad to see him leave, I am not.
Dwight brought credibility to the "City Beautiful", and with his loss, the entire city is back to being tagged as a non sports town. Sure we have the Orlando City soccer team (minor league), and the Solar Bears Ice Hockey team starting up, but what else is there? The Predators indoor football.....puhleeze....? (You can surely hear my bellowing as I laugh so hard I almost pass out)...
Sure, a lot of prominent athletes come from here, but the tiny city of Clermont has more pro athletes training there (NTC) than in all of Orange county now.
I am not afraid to say that the same owner that built up the Magic has on the surface, successfully torn it apart. Sure, you own the team and can do as you wish, but for the love of God, think about others and how they have supported you and backed you for so long.......selfishness is an ugly beast....and you will see when you realize that the ticket sales are slipping and that new arena you built is only going to survive on concerts that tour the area.
To let Dwight go is like giving up on the dream you have been holding onto of for so long....this was handled in as bad a way as could have been handled.......the MAGIC did not try......if I worked for you I would quit as well....hell, I couldn't leave soon enough, no matter how much green was thrown my way....
I first realized there was an issue when I was invited by Dwights team to go and tour Haiti after the enormous earthquake that rocked that poor island. The entire trip was to be taken by myself, Dwight, Shiyana, Adonal Foyle, Rodney the bodyguard and Kevin, Dwights manager.... This trip was NOT supported in any way by the NBA or the Magic themselves...in fact, I believe that they were actually against it.....this may not be true, but my gut tells me so, and I believe myself over ANYONE else!
Regardless, Dwight went to Haiti and witnessed the devastation first hand, even into Cite Solei, one of the 5 most dangerous places in the world...and what did he do you ask....well, he smiled and hugged every kid and played ball for 3 hours at a time...on top of donating hundreds of thousands of dollars to the school for salaries, backpacks, food and shelter..... but you never even heard a peep about this trip did you? Nope, nobody knew.......guess what, when we tried to leave the island, American Airlines cancelled our flight, so we spent the entire night in the airport, with the rats....Dwight bought thousands of dollars worth of food for everyone that was stuck, the volunteers and mission workers included, and he even signed autographs and posed for photos...all evening....
Its the little things that go unnoticed or unreported that makes a man who he is...and Dwight has far surpassed these measures...........dont think the city and the little ones that he has helped support all these years won't miss him........I just hope the Magic will fill the gaps that these large footprints have left....?
Good luck Dwight, you held on as long as you could here, and nobody blames you for going to L.A......at least they shouldn't if they one day think honestly about the situation..
I'm proud to know you!
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