by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University
One of my favorite films of all-time was "War of the Roses," starring Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner. In the film, a divorced couple starts down a dangerous and hilarious path of mutual destruction, where the goal of each is to make the other person's life miserable. At the end of the movie, both parties find that while it was their goal to destroy the other person, they actually ended up destroying themselves. Just for the record, each character dies at the end.
I think about "War of the Roses" when I see the custody battle between NBA star Dwight Howard and his ex-wife, Royce Reed. Of course I don't expect anyone to end up dead, but it's already clear that Royce and Dwight have made each other's lives as miserable as possible. Royce recently called the cops after Dwight picked up her son from daycare at a time when he was not scheduled to do so. Before that, Dwight had filed a lawsuit against Royce for referring to him as a "douchebag" on the TV show, "Basketball Wives.
