Why It’s Time to Let the Dwight Howard Orlando Magic Saga Go

As much as hoops-heads and basketball pundits alike resent Howard’s actions—or rather inaction—the stage is set for this drama to die. We just have to let it.

And we’re not, not all of us anyway.

According to Joshua Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel, Howard has traveled to China as part of a tour with Adidas, merely two weeks after he pulled out of a self-sponsored basketball camp.

And obviously that means the worst.

Dwight Howard is on the road again.

Two weeks after he originally was supposed to host a kids basketball camp in Orlando — a camp he withdrew from, citing the need to remain in Southern California to rehabilitate his surgically repaired back — Howard has traveled to China.

The former Orlando Magic superstar is visiting China as part of his annual promotional tour to the Far East for adidas, the shoe and apparel company he endorses.

How was he not healthy enough to attend a camp in Orlando but able to travel across the world just 14 days later? Money? Power? Is Howard planning on staging a coup to China?

Let me answer each of the aforementioned questions with another one—why do we care?

Who cares why Howard can’t be in Orlando one week, but can make the trip to China the next? I sure as hell don’t. And I sure as hell don’t believe he did it to spite the kids or perpetuate his shady behavior.

Maybe Adidas forced his hand. Maybe Howard wanted to avoid the city of Orlando at all cost. Maybe Howard simply likes the food outside of this continent.

Or maybe, just maybe, this means nothing all. Maybe many of us cannot seem to let go of what Howard did, what he didn’t do. Maybe we’re so hell-bent on ensuring he remains the villain that we’re going to interpret anything he does as a sign of blatant disregard to humanity.

And if that’s the case, it’s a damn shame.

No one’s denying Howard acted foolishly over the past year-and-a-half, and no one’s denying it was utterly torturous to witness him defy the laws of selflessness. But it’s time we stop denying that there’s still a headline-worthy story here.

Because if we allow it to be, this soap opera is dead. It died the second he joined the Lakers, and sure as anything, wasn’t reborn when he opted to explore the other side of the earth.

We kicked and screamed our way through the “Dwightmare;” we wished it would end, we needed it to end.

And yet, here many of us are, at the end, refusing to let go.

Well, I’m here’ to tell you it’s over. Whether you still respect Howard as a player or man is irrelevant, because until next summer, when he hits free agency, he’s no longer news.

Especially if that news consists of over-analyzing a trip he took to China, to most likely satisfy the requirements of his endorsement. And at that point, shouldn’t we just be happy he’s following through on his obligations for once?

But even if that’s not the case, it’s time to let go. This “saga” should be on life support; it should be dead.

Simply put, Howard has moved on, and it’s time those still clinging to the fragments this soap opera left behind do the same.