James Worthy was known throughout his career as someone who perferred to play rather than talk, but his role as a studio analyst for the Lakers has him doing more of the latter and he has some thoughts on new Laker big man Dwight Howard.
The Los Angeles Times reports Worthy took aim at Howard and the drawn out saga that began with Howard expressing his desire to play in a bigger market in October of 2011.
"I wasn't a fan of Dwight Howard," Worthy told Rohlin. "There was too much conversation.
"Who said this, I don't like this coach. To me, that's nonsense," Worthy
said. "Your job is to come in and play and deal with the situation
that's there."
Worthy spent his entire 13-year career with the Lakers, winning three NBA championships alongside Hall of Famers Earvin "Magic" Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. A proud Laker, Worthy was less than impressed with Howard's reticence to play for the team.
"I was a little bit taken back. I think I heard him say … if the
Lakers drafted him, he wouldn't take it," Worthy said. "I knew that was
gibberish."
Perhaps the most pointed comment of the entire exchange came when mentioning the Lakers reigning star, Kobe Bryant.
"We already have one superman in this town," he said in reference to Howard's self-proclaimed on-court persona.
Howard is joining an organization with a long history of great big men including all-time greats Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain and Shaquille O'Neal. Needless to say — although Worthy did — Howard isnt in Kansas anymore.
"This is not Orlando."
Hat tip to Yahoo! and the Los Angeles Times
Photo via Flickr/335th Signal Command
