“They sent me to Los Angeles, which was one of the places I didn’t want to go at the time”

This season Dwight Howard makes his third stint at the Los Angeles Lakers, rather rare in a career, especially since the first time he played there, during the 2012-13 season, he had not left great memories. In an interview with The Athletic, he confided that he did not want to be transferred to the Lakers by the Magic when he asked for his trade, which resulted in the famous Dwightmare

“My intention when I left Orlando was not to go to LA and the Magic knew it,” Dwight Howard said. “Despite my wishes to go elsewhere, they sent me to Los Angeles, which was one of the places I didn’t want to go at the time. I felt like people would have felt like I was trying to follow in someone else’s footsteps.”

Shaq’s tracks of course. Many analogies have been made with Orlando’s time with the Lakers, especially since Dwight borrowed his nickname “Superman.” »

“When they traded me there, I was like, ‘You know what? Maybe that’s where I’m supposed to be.’ »

From this trade, with his back problems, Dwight Howard greatly lost his luster and became a great traveler, chaining the franchises, with little success, until his return to the Lakers. Despite this, this long crossing of the desert undoubtedly greatly taints his career in the eyes of many, he who was NBA champion, 8 times All-Star, 8 times All-NBA, 3 times defender of the year, 8 times best rebounder , 2 times best storyteller. He didn’t even make it to the league’s 75-year-old list of the best players in history.

“You hear people say, ‘He was only dominant for a few years.’ I didn’t know that being All-Star for 8 years, being Dominant for 8 years was a few years. I didn’t know that winning three Defender of the Year titles in a row, and there should have been 4, is considered something that is not good. There are guys who don’t have that many honors. I’m the youngest player to hit 1,000, 2,000, 3,000 and up to 9,000 rebounds. So where is the concern? »

Via The Athletic

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