The Los Angeles Lakers pulled off a block-buster trade with the Orlando Magic this summer, with superstar center Dwight Howard coming to California. Even though Howard will have to adjust to a new city and environment, there will still be many familiar faces around him.
The Lakers also acquired Earl Clark and Chris Duhon, two of Howard’s teammates in Orlando. Duhon and Clark both lived through the ‘Dwightmare’ and it was certainly tough for them to fight through it. Duhon interacted with Howard almost on a daily basis and even though the media portrayed Howard in a negative way, Duhon understood that his teammate wanted to please everyone.
Duhon told the Los Angeles Times that the trade rumors wore down Howard, but he did his best to represent himself in a positive manner.
“It was tough for him and it was wearing on him,” Duhon said Friday in a phone interview with The Times. “The thing about Dwight, he’s a great guy. He wants to please everybody. He wants everybody to be happy. He doesn’t anybody to think negative of him. It was a tough situation. At some time, you have to think about yourself and what you want to do. He had a tough time handling that, but at the end of the day, it wore on him.”
Howard has always been an outgoing character and he has developed a great reputation around the league. Howard is always one to have fun and make sure he is enjoying himself while on the court. However, he did lose some fans after the ‘Dwightmare,’ and it will take some time for him to win them back.
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In case you missed it – Dwight Howard talks about starting over in Los Angeles:
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