Dwight Howard‘s return to Atlanta as a member of the local NBA team has been met with some optimism. The former All-Star center isn’t quite the same player he once was, but after a few tumultuous years in Los Angeles and Houston, Howard’s homecoming has generated optimism that he can stay out of the NBA circus and simply perform on the court.
Well, that isn’t off to the best start, given what he had to say about the Golden State Warriors this week.
As part of an interview with SiriusXM NBA Radio, Howard was prompted about the Warriors and he dared to claim that he doesn’t “really know who’s on their team.”
Here is the full transcript, by way of CBS Sports (emphasis ours):
How do you look at Golden State?
Well, to be honest with you, I haven’t even looked at Golden State.
You haven’t looked at Golden State?
I have not. That’s the honest-to-God truth. I’m happy for K.D. I know a lot of people have been killing him for leaving and going to Golden State, but hey man, he looks happy out there. I did have a chance to, I went to the bowling alley and I saw the first half of their game against the Clippers and he looks happy. He’s in a great situation for himself. But I haven’t really had a chance to really sit down, I don’t really know who’s on their team. I just glanced on the game for a couple minutes. Like I said, I saw the expressions on K.D.’s face of how happy he was. I’m happy for him. They’re going to be a really good team. Hopefully, it would be great to be playing ’em in the Finals. That’d be fun. ‘Cause I personally, they’ve beaten the teams I’ve been on the last couple years, and I want to beat those guys really bad.
This is, of course, preposterous from anyone who pays any level of attention to the NBA on a regular basis and doubly so from a high-level player that admitted to watching Golden State play basketball earlier in the week. In defense of Howard, there is a chance that he was simply talking about the end of the bench for the Warriors, but with the likes of Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green on board, it seems impossible that Howard would not know, at minimum, the rotation for the team favored to win the NBA title.
Dwight Howard might just be operating in true Dwight Howard fashion here by burying his head in the sand, but it doesn’t make much sense to dismiss the thought of the Warriors at this point. They are kind of a big deal.
