Dwight Howard is looking to continue his NBA career by making a return to Los Angeles. It’s somewhat fitting that he returns to the place most consider to be the starting point of his downfall, and how he does with the Lakers on and off the court may very well determine whether he has a future in the league.
Back problems (and most recently a glute injury) were a big part of his slide, but he’s remained quite productive on the court even as he’s bounced from team to team. The bigger issue has been Howard’s presence in locker rooms. While we have heard relatively little as far as on the record stories about Howard, the consensus reached by the Hawks, Hornets, and Wizards in the last three years has been he’s not worth whatever problems he brings with him, as each have swiftly traded him for nothing after one year of service.
The Lakers are aware of that and have him on a non-guaranteed deal for the first half of the season, effectively giving him a trial run to make sure they can cut ties if need be. Even without being guaranteed to be a Laker for the whole season, Howard is enjoying yet another summer of redemption stories.
Most recently, he gave a tour of his Atlanta area mansion for In Depth with Graham Bensinger and showed off his most prized possessions, one of which being a purple Rolls Royce he bought after being inspired by Thanos from Avengers: Infinity War, who he called his “favorite character,” and how he had to put aside his emotions to accomplish his goal (of killing half of the living things on the planet).
I don’t want to reignite the debates about whether there was some good reasoning behind Thanos’ grand plan, but being inspired by the big bad guy in a comic book movie might not be the best thing in the world. But, hey, maybe Dwight’s turn from Superman to Thanos is what is needed for him to get back to being a helpful member of a good NBA team. At least, that’s what the Lakers have to hope.
