Dwight Howard Trade Official: Magic lose whiner, add whole team

Well, that's taken care of at least.

The Orlando Magic have unloaded the man/child who had become both theirs and the NBA's biggest headache.

They completed a trade Friday afternoon with 3 other teams that totaled 11 players and 5 draft picks. It essentially creates a new (albeit not very good) Magic roster and puts Howard in LA-LA Land.

It took the Philadelphia 76ers, Denver Nuggets and the Lakers to help make the trade of "Mr Whiny Bitch", who when not crying, is one of the better players in the NBA.

The Magic send Howard, Chris Duhon and Earl Clark to LA and Jason Richardson to Philadelphia. In return, they get Aaron Affalo and Al Harrington from Denver, Maurice Harkness and Nikola Vucevic from Philadelphia and Josh McRoberts along with Chrstian Eyenga from the Lakers.

Still following?

Denver then gets Andre Igoudala from Philly and the Sixers get Andrew Bynum from the Lakers.

Oh, the Magic also get 3 1st Round Picks and 3 2nd Rounders out of it too.

Tired yet?

Did we mention Howard's contract expires at the end of the 2012-13 season? Oh...he also hasn't said he will re-sign with the Lakers either. (Though we bet he will)

We guess Mr. Howard backed off his demand to go to New Jersey here. (awwww) But he now joins a rather old Lakers roster with Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and Steve Nash on it. And though they may be old, that's a pretty imposing lineup.

The funny thing to us is in the Magic's press release, they don't name Howard by name until half way through it.

Read the Magic release RIGHT HERE

Sigh.

Sorry to say, but this is why we hate the NBA. More than baseball or football, the NBA is about big markets. Sure, the Oklahoma City Thunder are an exception, but they won't be able to keep that team together after the 1st contracts run out either.

No, instead you get talented players who turn into Spoiled Brats like Howard did, and hold there smaller market team hostage until they get to go where they want.

And quite honestly, we don't even begrudge Howard leaving for another team, it's just the way he handled it. Had he been a grown-up and handled it like a professional, we'd have little issue. But he cried and whined and made a big scene about it instead.

Anyway, it will be weird seeing him in a Laker uniform next season. Partially since we don't like the Lakers. But also because now the ONLY NBA coverage we...and everyone else will get this upcoming season is ESPN drooling over the Miami Heat and slobbering over Howard and the Lakers.