News broke yesterday that the Orlando Magic had stopped listening to offers for their star center Dwight Howard, who has been the focus of trade rumors for the last two weeks.
However, that doesn’t mean that Howard is changing his tune.
According to the Orlando Sentinel it appears that Dwight Howard is reiterating his desire to be traded from the Magic to either the Dallas Mavericks, New Jersey Nets or Los Angeles Lakers.
“It still stands. We know what’s going on,” said Howard. “I talked to Otis [Smith, Orlando general manager] today, and what we talk about is going to stay between me and him.”
This could be good news for the Lakers, who missed out on the Chris Paul sweepstakes after a controversial ruling from the league office. Even if Orlando refuses to trade Howard for now, his desire to be elsewhere doesn’t appear to be waning.
Whether or not the team trades Howard or not, his desire to play for a different team could ultimately work in the Lakers’ favor.