The league's most polarizing center, Dwight Howard, has left the Hollywood spotlight for Houston a few weeks ago and the Los Angeles Lakers organization is still sorting through what happened.
While the suspected top reasons for Howard's departure, his sour relationship with fellow superstar Kobe Bryant and his dissatisfaction with Mike D'Antoni's up-tempo philosophy, had little to do with the front office, Jeanie Buss thinks her father could have helped keep him.
Lakers executive vice president Jeanie Buss, the daughter of deceased Lakers owner Jerry Buss, thinks if her father had been in good health he could have convinced the "Rocket Man" to stay in L.A.
"They would've probably had a better relationship if my dad hadn't been sick," Jeanie said. "When it came time to try to convince Dwight to stay, we lost the best closer in the business in Dr. Buss."
The Lakers also took heat for unveiling a giant billboard that essentially begged Howard to stay. The episode was humiliating for a franchise as proud as the Lakers, and the shame was doubled when Dwight checked out anyway. Jeanie believes his recruitment would have been handled better if the owner were still around to guide them.
"Putting up the billboard maybe wasn't the right thing. But we maybe have to learn to do things differently because Dr. Buss isn't here anymore. People said [of the billboards], 'Oh, that's not the Laker way.' Well, the Laker way isn't the same, because Dr. Buss isn't here."
Jeanie also has given credit to Howard for his hard work returning from multiple injuries during his short L.A. stay; she may be the only person affiliated with the Lakers with kind words for the departed All-Star.
"I was really shocked that right from the start of training camp, he was going full speed or 100 percent," Jeanie said. "I really admired that, because he did that in good faith ... he didn't have a contract."
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