Dwight Howard’s 6 Biggest Screw-Ups With The Lakers This Season

On August 11, 2012, the Los Angeles Lakers completed their second blockbuster trade of the offseason. After luring two-time MVP Steve Nash away from division rival Phoenix, they worked out a four-team deal that brought Dwight Howard to the bright lights of L.A. Expectactions immediately went through the roof, a team with four future Hall of Famers (Nash, Howard, Pau Gasol and Kobe Bryant) was supposed to keep the Pacific Division title away from the pesky upstart Los Angeles Clippers, supposed to reclaim the Western Conference title, and supposed to challenge the Miami Heat for NBA supremacy. None of it happened.

Dwight Howard’s first year in Tinseltown was a huge failure. One coach was fired, Mike Brown, and a second coach, Mike D’Antoni, is practically being run out of town by the fans. Some of the things that happened with the Lakers this year were unbelievable. Howard delivered many of these moments.

Now as a free agent, Howard wants to “get away” before he makes a decision on where he will play next. If it is back to L.A., there are some definite changes that he must make to not only his game but to his personality as well.

Here are Dwight Howard’s biggest fails as a Laker this season.

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GETTING HIS SHOT DEMOLISHED BY PAUL MILLSAP
In the Lakers’ third game of the year they faced off against the Utah Jazz, who would ultimately become their main competition for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.

Less than two minutes into the game Howard found himself under the basket and ready to slam home the first two Los Angeles points of the game, but Paul Millsap had other plans.

Millsap and Howard went up at the same time and as Dwight tried to flush it in with two hands, Millsap’s right hand smacked the ball out all the way back to the three-point line.

To put this in better perspective, Millsap is listed at 6-8 and Howard is 6-11 (both of those heights are a little generous). Howard isn’t a flat-footed, non-athletic big man either. Remember, before the back problems, he won a dunk contest. It wasn’t like Millsap was lucky and got a piece of the ball or caused Howard to simply miss the dunk, either. Millsap nearly swatted the ball out of bounds and into the courtside seats. Utah’s power forward met Howard at the rim and Millsap won. Embarrassingly so. Howard is usually the one doing the denying, but this time the tables were turned.

GIVING THE CHARLOTTE BOBCATS A HIGHLIGHT
The Charlotte Bobcats are the lowest of the low in the NBA. Even though they finished a game above the Orlando Magic for the league’s worst record this year, they still are the league’s bottom-feeders.

Yet in mid-December, the Bobcats visited the Staples Center and put on a performance that won’t soon be forgotten. Charlotte built up an 18-point lead in the third quarter and it seemed as if the Lakers had no chance of winning.

Behind the play of Bryant, the Lakers would comeback and take a six-point lead with eight minutes to play in the fourth quarter, and actually won the game, 101-100. Yet it was Gerald Henderson who was all of the talk afterward.

With under eight minutes to play, Henderson flashed through the middle of the lane and received a pass from Bismack Biyombo. Henderson soared through the sky — and right over Dwight Howard — to throw in one of the dunks of the year.

It resembled Blake Griffin‘s infamous Timofey Mozgov dunk, and had Antawn Jamison jumping off the L.A. bench (only to be quickly pulled down). While Henderson is one of the better athletes in the league, the fact that Howard allowed this to happen to him on the Lakers’ home court is a definite fail.

NOT GOING BACK AT KOBE
Kobe Bryant is not easy to play with. His competitive edge and his will to win drive him to seek perfection, not only from himself, but from his teammates as well. Michael Jordan was very similar during his playing days.

One of the early questions when Howard arrived in Los Angeles was whether or not Howard would be able to handle Kobe as a teammate. In one of the first reported team rifts of the year, Kobe allegedly asked if Howard had any problems with the way Kobe was treating him.

Dwight didn’t put his foot down in any sense and supposedly gave an unclear answer back to Kobe. That would have been the perfect time for Howard to stand ground and say either he did have a problem or that he didn’t.

The fact that Howard said nothing is a problem. Kobe knows he is a difficult teammate, but that doesn’t mean that everyone should fall in line and do whatever he says. Kobe likes to be challenged — just look at the relationship him and Shaquille O’Neal had and how successful they were during their time together.

Though Shaq and Dwight have different styles, it probably would have been better for the team if he had voiced his opinion and fired right back at Kobe. Howard’s passive aggressive comments served no purpose and had he spoken his mind it could have created some sort of open dialogue between the two.

TELLING KOBE HE IS NOT A DOCTOR
In a continuation of my last point, injuries were a big part of the Lakers season as well. Nash, Gasol and Bryant all missed time throughout the season and Howard had his own issues. Despite coming back earlier than expected from a back injury, Dwight battled a lingering labrum injury for most of the year.

During a stretch in February, Howard missed three-straight games. Following the lost of Pau Gasol to plantar fasciitis in the previous night’s game, Kobe voiced his opinion that Dwight should play through his injury if he could deal with the pain. In short, Bryant basically told Howard to suck it up and play. Needless to say, these words didn’t go over too well with Superman 2.0. When told of what Kobe had said, Howard responded by saying Kobe is not a doctor, that the Mamba doesn’t know what is best for Dwight’s body.

While it may seem that Howard was finally stepping up for himself and firing back at Kobe, it wasn’t done at the right time. The Lakers needed Dwight to play. They were still on the outside looking in in terms of the playoffs. Kobe was simply saying if there was anyway for Howard to play through the injury than he needs to find a way to get it done.

Howard’s comments only made him seem more juvenile and showed a lack of maturity and sense of urgency on his behalf. It reached a point where even Dwight’s father felt the need to chip in his two cents on the topic as well, saying that Kobe was wrong to pressure Howard, criticizing D’Antoni for not intervening.

MOCKING KOBE AT ALL-STAR WEEKEND
Tensions were at an all-time high in Los Angeles by the time All-Star Weekend rolled around. Dwight Howard and Kobe Bryant were voted in by the fans and were teammates once again in Houston. All-Star Weekend is one of the biggest media attractions of the NBA season. It’s not the time to make the back pages of any news outlet, especially The New York Post. But that’s exactly where Howard found himself.

Allegedly, Howard mocked Kobe openly in the locker room and in front of other players on the Western Conference team. According to the report, he was joking and berating Kobe to fellow NBA stars like Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and Kevin Durant.

While it is Page Six of The New York Post, it still holds some value that a story of that caliber would even break during the All-Star festivities. Howard has a joking personality so it may have just been fun and games, but mocking someone behind their back, especially a star that you already have friction with, won’t do anything to quench the fire. Howard wasn’t having as great a season as expected and it wasn’t right for him to mock Kobe openly where any and everyone could walk in and see.

GETTING EJECTED FROM GAME 4 OF THE PLAYOFFS
After winning the final two games of the season against the San Antonio Spurs and Houston Rockets — without Kobe — the Lakerd cemented themselves as the seventh seed in the NBA Playoffs.

Their first-round opponent was the Spurs. Laker Nation was excited; if there was any team they believed they had a chance against it was the old and injured Spurs, especially after defeating them, 91-86, in their final meeting of the season.

It was also a chance for Dwight Howard to showcase himself as the team’s centerpiece. With Kobe out for the rest of the year due to his ruptured Achilles tendon, the Lakers had become Howard’s team by default. If Howard could lead the Lakers past the first round, it probably would’ve guaranteed he’d be back in purple and gold next season.

However, after losing the first three games of the series, the Lakers faced elimination at home in Game 4. After a disappointing first half, Howard was gone before he could make much more of an impact.

While fighting for post position, Howard got irritated and complained to the referee that he was getting fouled. Howard said the magic word, receiving his second technical foul of the game, and was ejected. The big man left with just seven points and eight rebounds, and even had words with Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak while walking through the tunnel. Howard’s actions in Game 4 caught the ire of Magic Johnson, who ranted on Twitter afterward.

What do you think?

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