The above image is from the first newspaper that I’ve purchased in probably 2 years, because once I heard that Dwight Howard bought a full-page ad to say farewell to Orlando I knew I had to check it out for comedy purposes. Sure enough, it didn’t let me down, as it looks like he sent a zip file of PR pics to an Orlando Sentinel ad designer with a note that read: “Yo, whip something nice up and throw some words on it.”
My favorite part of Howard’s letter, beyond even the charm of his “Hey look at all the stuff I did with your kids!” collage, is the phrase “Although my career with the Magic has come to a close…” because that perfectly sums up how poorly Howard handled his exit from Orlando. His PR yes-men really deserve an award for the bang-up job they did in destroying the NBA’s most likable big man in a matter of a year, because even LeBron James left the door open to eventually return to Cleveland.
Howard, on the other hand, flat out said, “See ya!” and left a bunch of trash on the curb on Monday afternoon, knowing full well that the garbage isn’t picked up until Thursday. But it’s over, and Howard is a proud member of the Los Angeles Lakers, and thanks to the current culture of NBA fans and their short attention span bandwagon worship, he’ll be forgiven in no time. So I actually want to do the big guy a favor and help him endear himself with his new Lakers fans – the same ones who spent the last two seasons trying to convince everyone that Andrew Bynum is better than Howard.
I designed an ad that Howard can publish in an upcoming issue of the Los Angeles Times, and I think it’s pretty darn accurate.
