Dwight Howard | Larry Brown Sports

Dwight Howard rejected by Quincy Acy at rim (Video)

November 11, 2013 By Larry Brown Leave a Comment

Dwight Howard had another one of those moments that his haters will love.

Late in the third quarter of the Houston Rockets-Toronto Raptors game on Monday, Howard took an entry pass from James Harden and spun around Tyler Hansbrough in the low post. Dwight then went up for a reverse dunk, but Quincy Acy met him at the rim and rejected him.

Houston still beat Toronto 108-104 in double-overtime, and Dwight finished with 18 points, 24 rebounds and five blocks, so he gets the last laugh. But you know folks are going to love that block by Acy.

Via Matt Moore

Filed Under: Basketball Tagged With: Dwight Howard, Quincy Acy

Dwight Howard booed by Clippers fans (Video)

November 5, 2013 By Larry Brown Leave a Comment

Dwight Howard didn’t exactly receive the friendliest welcome back to Staples Center when his Houston Rockets visited LA to face the Clippers on Monday night. The Houston center was booed during team introductions before the game, and then he was booed on his offensive touches.

What would Clippers fans have against him? It’s probably a combination of things.

One, maybe there are some Clippers fans who are also Lakers fans and don’t like that the center left the purple and gold. Two, Howard frustrated a lot of fans over the past few seasons with his indecisiveness regarding his future. Maybe the fans don’t like him because of that. Or, more simply, the fans may have been booing because Howard is a top player on a top team that is expected to contend with the Clippers for the Western Conference title.

Asked after the game about being booed, Howard said “I don’t care,” even though he probably does.

The big man ended up with just 13 points and 9 rebounds in 25 minutes in the 137-118 loss. The margin of defeat left Rockets GM Daryl Morey impressed:

We aren't playing well but the Clippers are very good. Will be very tough to beat by anyone.

— Daryl Morey (@dmorey) November 5, 2013

Congratulations to CP3 and Doc Rivers, that was impressive

— Daryl Morey (@dmorey) November 5, 2013

It’s early November. I fully expect the Rockets to be one of the best in the West this season and even better than the Clippers when the playoffs come.

Filed Under: Basketball, Viral Greatness Tagged With: Dwight Howard, Los Angeles Clippers fans

Mark Cuban: Dwight Howard made wrong decision going to Houston

October 31, 2013 By Larry Brown Leave a Comment

Mark Cuban still believes that Dwight Howard made the wrong decision by choosing the Houston Rockets in free agency instead of the Dallas Mavericks. What else is new?

The Mavericks are one of the handful of teams Howard considered in free agency. He also looked at the Golden State Warriors, Atlanta Hawks and Los Angeles Lakers in addition to Houston and Dallas.

Mavs owner Mark Cuban and superstar Dirk Nowitzki were among the team reps who were part of the team’s presentation to Howard in free agency. In August, Cuban shared the video the team created and played for Howard. Even though Cuban says the Mavericks are better off without Howard, he still believes the center made the wrong choice.

“Obviously, he made a mistake in judgment,” Cuban said Thursday via ESPN Dallas. “Do I blame him? No, that’s what young kids do. They make mistakes in judgment.”

Cuban continued to explain where Howard went wrong.

“You choose teams. You don’t choose players,” Cuban said. “If he made a choice off of an individual player, yeah, he made a mistake. You choose teams. You choose organizations. You choose coaches. And it’s just not relative to Houston.”

Cuban was obviously talking about Howard going to Houston to pair with James Harden, whom many consider to be one of the top young players in the game.

“That’s just the way I look at it, because if he’s that good, then the right organization … Put aside Dwight. Any young superstar looking to make a move, if you’re that good, then the right organization gets all the right pieces around you. So it’s not about, you’d rather play with this guy. If you’re that good and you have [salary cap] flexibility, the right organization will put the right pieces around you and get you there.”

This just sounds to me like more bitterness from Cuban, and it makes me believe that Cuban still wishes Dwight chose Dallas instead of Houston, despite what he says. Dwight absolutely think he made the right decision, and I think it was a smart move to team up with Harden. Pairing with other players is the most important factor when you’re a superstar like him. Putting in the right coaches and supporting cast is easier to do once you have the right talent in place the way Houston does.

Filed Under: Basketball, Featured Stories Tagged With: Dwight Howard, Mark Cuban

Mike D’Antoni admits he felt pressure to run offense through Dwight Howard, not Pau Gasol

October 29, 2013 By Steve DelVecchio Leave a Comment

Prior to last season, the Los Angeles Lakers were one of the better offensive teams in the NBA. Then they got Dwight Howard. The Lakers were the preseason favorite to win the Western Conference, but things went south in a hurry. Part of the reason for that was they couldn’t score.

During a recent interview with Sam Amick of USA Today Sports, Mike D’Antoni acknowledged the issue of having to run his offense through Howard when the team had been so fluid running it through Pau Gasol in previous seasons. D’Antoni basically admitted he had no choice.

“It was very uncomfortable,” he said. “I knew I was messing on (Gasol) last year. That’s not fair to him. But that was the situation we were in. How do we make the best of it? I was just trying to make the best of it. But no, it wasn’t fair to him.

“I think it was all (politics). It was all that. We wouldn’t do that (normally). If nobody had names on their jerseys, and we were just playing? You go through Pau. There’s not a question. No question.”

Gasol was relegated to a bench role last season before D’Antoni finally admitted that he was wrong to not play both Gasol and Howard. He initially thought his offense would not work with two big men, but it turned out to be more effective when Gasol was on the floor. Even Kobe Bryant sent out some tweets while he was injured about how his team needed to put Gasol in the post and feed him the ball.

The air between D’Antoni and Gasol is supposedly cleared, and Gasol will need to be the player he was before the Howard era if LA wants to stand any chance this season.

“I definitely believe I can do it,” Gasol said. “I know it. I bounced back really well. The procedure went well, my tendons are a lot healthier now than they were before. I have a lot more healthy tissue that regenerated well. I worked hard during the summer to be in the position that I’m in today, and I look forward to just to going out there and doing what I know best.”

With Kobe coming back from a torn Achilles’ and Steve Nash nursing a number of injuries, Gasol could be the go-to guy in the early part of the season.

H/T Pro Basketball Talk

Filed Under: Basketball, Featured Stories Tagged With: Dwight Howard, Mike D'Antoni, Pau Gasol

Dwight Howard ‘a little upset’ Orlando Magic let Tobias Harris wear No. 12

October 16, 2013 By Steve DelVecchio Leave a Comment

Dwight Howard would like to think that he left behind a legacy when he was traded from the Orlando Magic to the Los Angeles Lakers. He is the Magic’s franchise leader in points, rebounds and blocked shots. However, Howard never won a championship with Orlando and left the team on sour terms. And now he expects the Magic to essentially retire his jersey number?

In a recent interview with Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel, during which Howard said he left the Lakers because he “had to do what was best for Dwight,” the 27-year-old admitted he would have liked his former team to block players from wearing No. 12. The jersey is currently worn by 21-year-old small forward Tobias Harris.

“I just think that despite whatever happened, there was a lot of things that I did and that we did as a team, and that number was special down there,” Howard said. “And I was a little bit upset about that.”

Howard also expressed regret for the way his career in Orlando ended. That being said, how delusional is this guy? No one is saying the Magic have to despise him, but is everyone just supposed to forget about the way he embarrassed the team with his phony relationship with Stan Van Gundy toward the end? Or how about all the reports that he was disgusted with Orlando and wanted out, all of which were followed with infamous Dwight denials?

As a side note, Harris is wearing No. 12 to honor a close friend of his who died from leukemia at age 17. We’re assuming Howard was unaware of that.

Maybe Howard will win a championship with the Houston Rockets and the fans will love him. Perhaps some day his number will be retired in Houston. But as of now, he doesn’t exactly have massive fan bases in Orlando and LA. Why should he?

H/T Ball Don’t Lie

Filed Under: Basketball, Featured Stories Tagged With: Dwight Howard, Tobias Harris

Kobe Bryant: I don’t give a s— about Dwight Howard leaving (Video)

September 28, 2013 By Larry Brown 2 Comments

You think Kobe Bryant is sick of talking about Dwight Howard yet?

Speaking at Los Angeles Lakers Media Day Saturday, Bryant was surrounded by reporters and asked questions about Howard’s choice to leave the Lakers for the Houston Rockets. They were the same questions Bryant answered all summer, so no doubt he was tired of hearing about the subject.

Bryant said he wasn’t surprised that Howard chose to sign with Houston, indicating he felt that was going to happen. When asked why he got that feeling, Kobe said “honestly man, I really don’t give a s—. It is what it is. If he came back, it would’ve been great. If he didn’t, it’s not. It is what it is.”

It is what it is. Kobe isn’t the first Laker to say he felt Dwight wasn’t going to come back, so what can they really do? Dwight didn’t want to be there for a variety of reasons. Having to be second in line to Kobe was probably the biggest reason. Now it’s time for both sides to move on. The Lakers will move on to mediocrity, while Houston will move forward to being one of the top teams in the Western Conference. It is what it is.

H/T The Point Forward

Filed Under: Basketball Tagged With: Dwight Howard, Kobe Bryant

Dwight Howard reportedly wanted Mike D’Antoni fired, Kobe released or muzzled

August 25, 2013 By Larry Brown 3 Comments

Dwight Howard had two conditions he wanted the Los Angeles Lakers to meet in order to remain with the team, according to a report.

NBA reporter Ric Bucher says the current Houston Rockets center wanted the Lakers to fire Mike D’Antoni as coach, and to either amnesty or at least “muzzle” Kobe Bryant. Neither condition should come as a surprise to anyone who’s followed the situation.

It was previously reported that Howard was frustrated with the way D’Antoni used him last season, and that he disliked D’Antoni’s system. Another report from July said Howard wanted the Lakers to move past the Kobe Bryant era. Howard even admitted that the “timing” wasn’t right for him to stay with the Lakers.

The Lakers made the difficult — and in many cases unpopular — decision to make Kobe their franchise cornerstone in 2004 and trade Shaq to the Miami Heat. Though Shaq was the more dominant player at the time — he won a title in his second season with the Heat — Bryant was the better long-term investment for the franchise. The Lakers were in the same situation now but, instead of taking the better long-term play, they opted to keep the franchise in the hands of Kobe. I think it was a bad decision.

Filed Under: Basketball Tagged With: Dwight Howard, Los Angeles Lakers