When Dwight Howard was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers in the summer of 2012, it was supposed a be a dream situation for him. He joined a team that had Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash, Pau Gasol and Metta World Peace, and they were supposed to be a championship contender. Instead, their season turned into a bust that saw their coach get fired and their year end in a first-round sweep.
Bryant had personal issues with Howard, which disrupted the team chemistry and resulted in Howard’s time with the team being brief.
Howard appeared on Wave Sports show “7pm in Brooklyn” for an interview that was published on Thursday. During the interview, he talked with host Carmelo Anthony about several subjects, including how things did not go well with Bryant.
Howard spoke specifically about how awkward things were when he and Bryant traveled to the 2013 All-Star Game together.
“We flew together. We was on the same plane and we didn’t even talk. I’m like ‘Yo, it’s just me you and our families and we can’t speak to each other?… Then when we got to the lockers, me and him supposed to be next to each other. They put all the teammates, he over here and I’m like, ‘Yo, this crazy.’ I didn’t know what was going on. I didn’t know what was going on,” Howard said. “That was tough to deal with when you got a player that you watched growing up. I literally watched Kobe growing up, even though we played together and had all these disagreements or whatever people want to say, it’s still somebody that I looked at like, ‘dang, this is Kobe Bryant, man, I want to be like that one day be on that stage.’ And then now we teammates and it’s like, damn, this n—a’s on mute with me. It’s like, ‘what’s going on?’ Damn, that was kind of rough.”
Howard said he was still trying to make things work with the Lakers, but it was tough because he was playing through back and shoulder injuries. In retrospect, Howard thinks it was a bad decision by him to try playing through the injuries.
“I just got finished having back surgery. I was supposed to be out a whole year. I came back in four months from a back surgery, herniated disc came back early. Then throughout that season I tore my laboring, tore my labor room, played through that and I’m like, ‘man, you know what? F— it. I’m here in LA, I’m with a list of bigs. Let me show my dominance. I’m not going to worry about injuries or nothing like that.’ And that was probably my worst decision, trying to play through all those injuries just to prove to fans and people that I’m not who they say I they trying to portray me as. And I thought that was stupid to me to do that,” Howard said upon reflection.
Howard was 27 that season and had just finished an 8-year run with the Orlando Magic where he established himself as a dominant center. He averaged 17.1 points, 12.4 rebounds and 2.4 blocks per game in that season with the Lakers. Despite his injuries, Dwight Howard still played in 76 games that season. Maybe Bryant had some personal issues with Howard, but at least the center showed up and played most of the season.
