Dwight Howard called out his Magic teammates after the squad got hammered by the Hornets 93-67 Friday. The blowout loss came to a team on a nine-game losing streak, and a day after Orlando blew a 27-point lead to the Celtics. Dwight questioned his teammates’ efforts.
“I look at guys and they don’t look like they want to play,” Howard said. “I told them at halftime, ‘If you don’t want to play, just stay in the locker room, because it don’t make sense for a team who we should beat to just demolish us.’
“It hurts to get out there and you play your hardest and you expect everybody to play the same way, and I’m not calling anybody out by no means because we all have to get better … But if you don’t want to be out there, don’t dress up,” Howard said. “If you don’t want to play, stay home. People work too hard. I want to win a championship. I work too hard every night for anybody to not want to go out there and play hard.”
Howard may sound like he’s demonstrating strong leadership skills by standing up this way, but he should understand something. Why would his teammates be following him knowing that he’s going to be leaving the team soon? It’s hard to listen to someone who’s not committed to the team, which Howard isn’t. Orlando should have traded for Chris Paul to make this season their last run at a championship before disbanding. Now they’re stuck with a mess.
Photo Credit: Derick E. Hingle-US PRESSWIRE
