Howard continues to dominant the league's offseason storylines, as his future with the Orlando Magic remains in limbo. He'll be a free agent after the 2012-13 season, which has left a rebuilding Orlando team scrambling to unload him to try to get something of value in return.
Of course, Howard's charades — his willingness or unwillingness to play in certain cities, sign contract extensions with those teams, etc. — have turned this whole thing into, well, to quote Stern, a "soap opera."
Not that's necessarily a bad thing, according to the commish.
"To me, it is the soap opera our fans turn in for — the drama on the court and the drama off the court," Stern told USA Today. "When we cease to have a story popping up, we probably won't exist.
"I think what it is, is that that's the way we are. That's the way it has been in baseball and the NFL and hockey and basketball. And frankly, it engages our fans, it engages our reporters, it engages our bloggers. It makes people happy, mad, sad. It's just the life in sports."
