The 2019-20 Los Angeles Lakers had a perfect compliment of role players surrounding their superstar duo of LeBron James and Anthony Davis that came together to win a championship. Alex Caruso, Rajon Rondo, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Dwight Howard, along with others, were outstanding during that season and many still feel that the Lakers should have kept that squad together and let them try and defend their championship in 2021.
One of the most surprising decisions was the franchise choosing to let Howard go as he was outstanding the prior year and was looking forward to returning. In fact, he believed that the two sides had agreed to a new deal for him to come back and tweeted out that he was returning before deleting the tweet and ultimately signing with the Philadelphia 76ers.
It was a very odd and confusing moment as no one was quite sure what had happened that led to that miscommunication. And in an interview with Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson, Howard revealed exactly what went down from his point of view that offseason:
“I was told that there was a contract and then I was so happy that I heard I was coming back, I tweeted about it and my agent called me back and said, “Hey. The Lakers took the contract off the table. You gotta take that tweet down.” I was like, ‘Damn! Why would they do that?’ and it really kind of messed with me because I’m like, I came in with the right attitude towards winning, not worried about points, rebounds… just worried about us winning another championship… and so many people made a big emphasis on me worrying about points and all that stuff which I think all players want to get out in the game and score and be effective. So, but I was highly upset that I didn’t get a chance to compete for a title defense because I believed that we had a special team and we had a window where we could’ve won and been to the NBA Finals multiple years.”
It is still unclear exactly why the Lakers chose to change course. The team did bring in Marc Gasol and Montrezl Harrell that offseason, so perhaps they felt they had everything they needed to defend their championship. And in fairness, things did start off well for the Lakers before injuries to both Davis and James torpedoed that season.
Ultimately, Howard would return to the Lakers for his final NBA season and has now been rightfully enshrined into the Basketball Hall of Fame where his career can be properly appreciated.
Dwight Howard calls it a ‘slap in the face’ to be left off NBA 75th Anniversary team
Dwight Howard was inducted into the Hall of Fame twice, both as an individual and as a member of the 2008 Redeem Team, which he believes makes up for the fact that he was left off the NBA 75th Anniversary team in 2021.
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