As the Lakers were swept out of the first round of the NBA playoffs by the San Antonio Spurs Laker legend Magic Johnson went to his Twitter to let the world know how disgusted he was by the performance of Dwight Howard.
The seventh-seeded Lakers were hobbled by injuries to much of the team, including superstar Kobe Bryant, and didn't have much of a chance against a strong Spurs team. In the end it wasn't the result that bothered Magic as much as it was Howard's dismal performance in the final game.
As the de facto leader of the team with Bryant on the bench Howard managed to score merely 7 points in the deciding game before getting ejected with 9:21 left in the third quarter.
"Laker Nation: Dwight Howard that was a big No, No. Your teammates and the fans were counting on you," Johnson tweeted.
Laker Nation: Dwight Howard that was a big No, No. Your teammates and the fans were counting on you.
— Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) April 29, 2013
"LN: Dwight with an already depleted team you couldn't afford to foul out or get kicked out. Having you on the floor was the only chance for the Lakers," Johnson said in a subsequent tweet.
Howard just completed his first year as a Laker and will be a free agent this summer. There's a great deal of speculation as to whether or not the star center would be interested in resigning with the team. Any efforts by the Lakers to bring him back probably were not helped by the face of the franchise publicly attacking Howard.
Howard got off to a slow start in Los Angeles as he was trying to recover from back surgery. The year went downhill from there. When asked to describe his first year as a Laker at the press conference following game 4 Howard got right to the point.
"A nightmare," Howard said. "A bad dream. I couldn't wake up out of it. It seemed like nothing could go right from the start."
Regardless of how difficult things may have been for Howard it seems like Johnson didn't have much empathy for him. After expressing joy that the Lakers season was finally over Johnson saved the most scathing attack for his final tweet.
"LN: Dwight, I've been swept before but I never let my team down by getting kicked out of the game," Johnson said.
