Los Angeles Lakers: Do yourself a favor and sign Dwight Howard!
By Ronald Agers
Dwight Howard lost a lot of money and his reputation leaving the Los Angeles Lakers.
Sure it’s easy to spend other people’s money so to speak, but $30 million dollars is still $30 million dollars. The Los Angeles Lakers had made it clear that they planned to offer Dwight Howard a 5-year, $118 million dollar contract. The red carpet was rolled out and the plan was to have Howard follow in line with the other all-time great Lakers big men.
Only one thing; Dwight Howard turned it down to sign a four-year, $88 million dollar contract with the Houston Rockets. That move resonates to Lakers fans to this day to the point that this article was written with extreme care.
The amount of animosity towards Dwight Howard was evident when Cari Champion, the host of the now-canceled SportsNation on ESPN absolutely lit him up on air. I saw it live and was shocked.
Then there were the rumors that Dwight Howard left the Lakers because of his relationship with Kobe Bryant. The Mamba put a label on Howard that stuck to this day. I mean Twitter has a “MEME” in the soft section where Kobe called him soft!
Years later, Dwight Howard understands the “Mamba Mentality” and is grateful to Kobe Bryant for doing it.
Now, it is understood that Dwight Howard is looking for his eighth team in the last nine years. The Houston Rockets move was a bad move. But let’s look at it this way.
Have you noticed that superstars who play alongside James Harden fall off a cliff career-wise? Think about it. Dwight Howard lasted two years. Then Chris Paul came in and got shipped out after two years. Carmelo Anthony‘s name didn’t get in the computer system before he got let go. Coincidence?
On the other side, Dwight Howard was the first of many free agents that the Lakers would strike out on the last two years of Kobe Bryant’s career. The narrative then was Kobe Bryant was difficult to play with and no other superstar wanted to play with him. Man, this reminds me of another current Lakers superstar.
This superstar, being LeBron James, will be an easier task for Dwight Howard.