Dwight Howard and his legacy in Los Angeles is complicated, but one chapter still stings for the former Lakers champion.
The eight-time All-NBA center revealed he was left shocked and disappointed when the team decided not to bring him back after the 2020 title run.
In a new interview with Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson, Howard explained how he thought he was returning, until the deal disappeared.
“I was told that there was a contract and then I was so happy that I heard I was coming back, I tweeted about it and my agent called me back and said, ‘Hey. The Lakers took the contract off the table. You gotta take that tweet down.’ I was like, ‘Damn! Why would they do that?’” Howard said. “And it really kind of messed with me because I’m like, ‘I came in with the right attitude towards winning, not worried about points, rebounds… just worried about us winning another championship,’ and so many people made a big emphasis on me worrying about points and all that stuff which I think all players want to get out in the game and score and be effective.”
With the Lakers no longer an option, Howard signed a one-year minimum deal to back up Joel Embiid in Philadelphia.
“So, but I was highly upset that I didn’t get a chance to compete for a title defense because I believed that we had a special team and we had a window where we could’ve won and been to the NBA Finals multiple years,” he explained.
Howard, who played three separate stints in L.A., was a critical reserve during the Lakers’ 2019-20 championship season. Across 69 regular season games, he averaged 7.5 points on 72.9 percent shooting, 7.3 rebounds, and 1.1 blocks in just under 19 minutes per game. He even finished ninth in Sixth Man of the Year voting, proving how impactful he was off the bench.
Howard eventually returned to Los Angeles in 2021-22, but by then the roster construction had shifted, and the Lakers failed to make the playoffs.
READ MORE: Isiah Thomas Tells Draymond the Harsh Truth About Golden State
