Dwight Howard's Unlikely Career Renaissance
Image courtesy of Silver Screen and Roll
By ANTOINE WILEY ‘20
There were a lot of doubts surrounding Dwight Howard’s signing to the Los Angeles Lakers this postseason. Dwight Howard has been shuffled between countless teams over the past several seasons. His unsuccessful stay with the Lakers from 2012-2013 gave him the reputation of a “locker room cancer” who didn’t take things seriously. During that season, Dwight and Kobe Bryant had a horrible relationship, and the Lakers failed to make it past the first round of the playoffs, suffering a humiliating sweep at the hands of the San Antonio Spurs.
Granted, Dwight Howard was once one of the league’s most dominant forces, leading the league in rebounds five times and in blocks two times. Howard is the only player in NBA history to win the Defensive Player of the Year award for three consecutive years. The eight-time All-Star even led the Orlando Magic to the NBA Finals in 2009. But, these days of glory seemed to be long gone, as evidenced by teams’ lack of interest in him. Howard was passed around league teams so frequently that he even joked about it during his brief stay with the Wizards: “I learned Magic for eight years. Went to La-La Land. Worked for a while with Rockets. Learned to fly with some Hawks. Got stung by the Hornets. And it all taught me how to be a Wizard.” Sadly, because of a back injury, Howard went on to play only 9 games with the Wizards before being traded to the Grizzlies, who then waived him in 2018; the Nets then went on to waive Howard in 2019.
However, Howard has silenced all the nay-sayers. This season, he’s had a career revival as a defensive role player, playing a vital role in the Lakers’ success. Right now, the Lakers are sitting at an NBA best: 11-2. ESPN found that with about 20 minutes of time per game, Howard is pulling down 7.7 rebounds and chipping in 7 points on exquisitely efficient 76% shooting, all while averaging 1.6 blocks, a figure that ranks tenth in the NBA, above players like reigning Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert (1.5) and Karl-Anthony Towns (1.5). Fox Sports found that Howard’s plus/minus is at +6.2, which ranks at 15th in the NBA and is the highest it’s been since the 2010-2011 season when he was still playing for the Magic. To put into perspective how impressive Howard’s plus/minus is, it ranks higher than superstar MVP candidates like Nikola Jokic and fellow Laker Anthony Davis.
After witnessing Howard’s success at the beginning of the season, even Kobe Bryant, who has an infamously contentious relationship with Howard, said that he believed Howard is “going to make a hell of an impact because of the new appreciation he has for playing the game.” Anthony Davis, a Lakers teammate and league superstar, also noted a change in Howard’s attitude: “Dwight has it on his mind that he wants to help this team win, and whatever that entails, he’s gonna do it. He wants to have his second run in L.A. be a great one.” Kobe and A.D.’s words suggest that Howard has gotten his act together, especially considering to what extent he was maligned by teammates as someone who didn’t give his best effort and didn’t take basketball seriously. Howard has also shown an impressive resolve to do whatever it takes to help his team, even if it means coming off the bench as a roleplayer, an especially difficult task considering his previous excellence. Hopefully Howard, after years of struggling to belong on an NBA roster, will be able to play his heart out and do what he couldn’t in 2009: win an NBA championship.