The dust has long settled on Dwight Howard's controversial move from Los Angeles to Houston. In Houston's Media Day, Howard reasoned that his explosive signing actually wasn't all that explosive. At least, it wasn't supposed to be. Howard said he didn't have to double think making the decision to leave Los Angeles and also revealed why he left Los Angeles in the first place.
Howard basically asserted that the drama around him leaving Los Angeles was imagined by the media. He sat down, made the decision, and informed the other teams and Lakers General Manger Mitch Kupchak about it before announcing it on Twitter.
[The Lakers] were the team that decided to take me from Orlando, so I wanted to give them that respect – especially Mitch, because that was somebody who I had conversations with all summer. I wanted to let him know personally, and to thank him for the opportunity to play for the Lakers.
And Howard left the Lakers because he wanted to win. He had Bryant, but with the Mamba retiring within the next few years, Howard would be the man to lead a team of young players with suspect levels of talent. The idea of teaming up with a young and game James Harden was too good to pass up.
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Howard left behind one of the most storied franchises in NBA history and a chance to join in the legacy. He made it clear he didn't care about that: "Other teams have more history, but yesterday's scores don't win today's games. You've got to look at the now. What's in the now? What can we do now? Nobody cared about what I did eight years ago, they want to know what I can do now, and it's the perfect team for me."
A very few amount of people know that more than Howard. He was the man in the late aughts, but his achievements got overshadowed by a series of poor public relations moves. But right now, he has a chance to silence some critics by simply grinding his teeth and playing good basketball.
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[via USA Today]
