End of the yellow brick road for the Lakers and Howard?

The drama, the expectations and the circus began when Dwight Howard officially became a Los Angeles Laker on August 10, 2013.

Everything the Lakers, players and their fans wanted and more so expected went up in flames when Kobe Bryant tore his Achilles tendon against the Golden State Warriors, and everything that took place after that was a mere formality.

The fans and the Lakers couldn’t actually expect to beat the San Antonio Spurs with half of their team in street clothes and the other half playing with injuries.

            "It's like a nightmare, a bad dream” is how Howard described the season in the press conference after the game and now it's over. No more injuries, no more coaching issues and no more arguing over whether or not Bryant shooting too much.

            The real question is if Howard will re-sign with the Lakers in the off-season. The Lakers can offer him a lucrative offer of $118 million over five years. If another team wants to sign Howard they can only offer four years for $88 million. The difference there is $30 million and that’s a lot of money to pass up.

Can Howard leave the Lakers after only a season with the team? The damage his image will take is enormous. The Lakers are one of the best sports franchises of all time, so if he chooses to leave he has to accept he’s going to a lesser situation.

The pros for Howard re-signing: $30 more million, franchise player once Bryant retires and the allure of playing for the Lakers and living in Los Angeles is second to none.

The logical reason for Howard leaving the Lakers is because the pressure of having to win championships in LA could be too much for him to handle it. Bryant gets a bad reputation but all Bryant wants to do is win championships. Plus, Howard always talks about how badly he wants to win championships and this is the team to do it with.

            Howard tweeted five times late last night expressing his frustrations and the last tweet got LA buzzing.

            What does it exactly mean? Is he thanking the fans for the support or is he saying good-bye to LA?

            We’ll find out one way or another over the summer but until then Bryant, Howard and the rest of the Lakers can enjoy fishin’ together.