Dwight Howard pens emotional goodbye to Lakers via social media

In the wake of veteran center Dwight Howard leaving in free agency for the Philadelphia 76ers, Howard took time to offer an emotional goodbye on social media to his teammates as well as the Lakers’ organization and fan base.

The 34-year-old Howard played only one season with the Lakers during his second tenure with the team, but the contrast before his earlier one-year stint with the team couldn’t have been more stark.

During the 2012-13 season, Howard struggled with physical pain and high expectations and ended up leaving in free agency after that single season.

Howard entered the 2019-20 season with limited expectations after playing for a series of different teams in recent years.

When he took the court for the Lakers this past season, Howard almost exclusively came off the bench and ended up a big part of the Lakers’ first NBA title in a decade.

Howard’s departure came after some confusing information about his status was posted online, with Howard himself deleting an earlier tweet saying that he’d be returning to the Lakers.

While the Lakers don’t have a huge gap to fill with Howard’s departure, it does require them to plug a hole more quickly than in previous seasons. That’s because the 2020-21 NBA season gets underway next month, making it the shortest offseason in NBA history.