Los Angeles Lakers fans likely have mixed feelings when it comes to big man Dwight Howard’s time with the team across several stints.
Howard seemingly wasn’t always a cherished figure among Lakers fans. In his first stint with the team, he was supposed to be the missing piece to a championship puzzle for a Los Angeles team led by guard Kobe Bryant. However, the Lakers fell well short of their title expectations, as they got swept in the opening round of the 2013 NBA Playoffs, and the big man departed Los Angeles that summer and signed with the Houston Rockets.
Howard alleges that he lost a deal with Adidas after his first stint in Los Angeles came to an end because Lakers fans weren’t happy with him.
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“When I left the Lakers when I played with Kobe and them, they said, ‘We can’t keep you on Adidas because the Lakers fans are mad at you,'” Howard said on what Adidas told him. “I did not get no new contract, man, I’m telling you. I was with Adidas — I had three Defensive Player of the Year awards, and I never got a big contract.”
Howard ostensibly redeemed himself to Lakers fans in his second stint in Los Angeles. He was no longer one of the top centers in the league in the 2019-20 campaign, but he still played a pivotal complementary role for a Lakers team that won the 2020 title.
Across 69 games played in the truncated regular season, he averaged 7.5 points, 7.3 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per contest. He finished in the top 10 in the league’s Sixth Man of the Year voting for his two-way contributions.
Howard was quite impactful for Los Angeles in the 2020 NBA Playoffs as well, considering he suited up in 18 of the Lakers’ playoff games and also logged seven starts. He came up particularly big for Los Angeles in the Western Conference Finals against the Denver Nuggets, as his defense against star big man Nikola Jokic in that series was nothing short of impressive.
The 39-year-old last played in the NBA with the Lakers in the 2021-22 campaign and won the only ring of his storied career with Los Angeles.
It’s unfortunate that Howard maybe missed out on a sizable chunk of cash from Adidas all because Lakers fans had a sour taste in their mouths at the time, but at least he and the fan base seem to be on better terms than they were in the past.
