When it comes to legendary big men, the Los Angeles Lakers are the most fabled organization in NBA history. Current and future Hall of Famers such as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain, Pau Gasol, George Mikan, and Shaquille O'Neal have all won championships in the purple and gold.
With this in mind, it was an all but inevitable outcome when Dwight Howard joined the Lakers ahead of the 2012-13 season.
Howard arrived in Los Angeles as a four-time Defensive Player of the Year who had led the Orlando Magic to the second NBA Finals appearance in franchise history. He was also a member of the Redeem Team with Los Angeles superstar Kobe Bryant—a fact that proved less fruitful than anticipated.
In a recent appearance on Gil's Arena, Howard discussed his time in Los Angeles and the remorse he feels over leaving the Lakers after just one season.
“One, I was already pissed because I had to go to LA. Nobody every knew I didn’t want to go LA. I didn’t want to go to the Lakers because I wanted to beat the Lakers. They just beat us in the Finals. So in my mind, I'm like, ‘Why would I go to the team that just beat us?’ I wanted to go to Brooklyn and just start my whole career over. But I got sent to LA and I was like, ‘I’m going to come back and we’re going to try to win in LA.’ And it didn’t work out. And I made an emotional decision to leave. I do regret that, making a decision just based off my emotions and how I was feeling about...how the fans were, how I felt the organization was at the time with me and Kobe. I didn’t really make a smart, logical decision. I just made an emotional decision at the time.”
It's a brutally honest evaluation of the events that led to Howard making the regrettable decision to leave the Lakers and join the Houston Rockets.
Dwight Howard regrets leaving the Lakers in 2013
Howard ultimately returned to the Lakers for the 2019-20 season and played a crucial role in the run to the franchise's 17th championship. His defense was essential to Los Angeles achieving the rare feat of containing Nikola Jokic during the 2020 Conference Finals.
Howard also dropped a double-double in Game 4 that helped the Lakers take a 3-1 series lead, and he added nine points, nine rebounds, and two blocks in the closeout game.
Despite the success that Howard helped the Lakers achieve, one can't help but wonder what could've been had he re-signed in 2013. His first season in Los Angeles was certainly challenging, due in no small part to the injuries he'd endured.
Howard underwent back surgery to repair a herniated disk mere months before the start of the 2012-13 season, and suffered a torn labrum in the midst of his initial Lakers run.
Furthermore, Bryant publicly endorsed Phil Jackson as his preference to become the team's new head coach after Mike Brown was fired just five games into the 2012-13 season. Instead, Los Angeles hired Mike D'Antoni in a move that was critically panned.
The logistics were clear—D'Antoni would turn Howard and Steve Nash into a remake of the Amar'e Stoudemire golden years in Phoenix—but the top-heavy roster was misused and mismanaged.
Pau Gasol, one of the most skilled post players of all time, was turned into a corner 3 specialist—and made the All-NBA Second Team as soon as he stopped playing for D'Antoni and returned to the post in 2014-15. Bryant and Howard, meanwhile, never seemed to get on the same page.
To his credit, Howard is speaking from a place of accountability as he recounts the events that led to his departure from Los Angeles in 2013.
Even he can't help but wonder how it all could've played out had he re-signed with the Lakers after his first season with the team.