It's Official: Dwight Howard is a Laker

There will be no basketball reasons this time. Per Adrian Wojnarowski, the only man you should ever trust with NBA news, the four team trade first reported last night is official, and Dwight Howard will be dressing that uber-muscular frame of his in beautiful purple and gold next season.

The Los Angeles Lakers have completed their blockbuster four-team trade to acquire Dwight Howard from the Orlando Magic, league sources told Yahoo! Sports.

The teams finalized the trade on a call with NBA officials Friday afternoon.

The terms of the trade are pretty remarkably in the Lakers' favor. They didn't have to give up Pau Gasol, and the bad contract they received (Chris Duhon is owed $7.5M the next two seasons) is nearly cancelled out because they got rid of a bad contract of their own with Josh McRoberts heading to Orlando. They give up a young player with potential in Christian Eyenga, but the dude was a project and unlikely to factor much in the coming season. The first round draft pick? Please. This was basically a straight swap of Bynum for Howard, and that is an absolute coup for the Los Angeles Lakers.

We'll have this covered from all angles through out the coming days, but for now: Mission Accomplished, Jimmy Kupchak, mission accomplished.