Even though Dwight Howard has been one of the most dominant centers of his era, at 29 years old, what most NBA fans and analysts will talk about years after he’s retired is what surrounded Howard off the floor; the “Dwightmare” saga in Orlando, the “This Is Going To Be Fun” team in Los Angeles Lakers, his partnership-turned-rivalry with Kobe Bryant and now his new role as the No. 2 option in Houston behind MVP candidate James Harden.
It’s all very fascinating and why I hope a reporter close to Howard throughout his career writes, or co-authors, a book chronicling Howard’s bizarre NBA career.
And Howard is still just 29 years old. If Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey isn’t able to secure a third star in the next couple of years to compliment Howard and Harden who knows what could possibly happen in Houston?
In an interview with SI’s Ben Golliver, Howard dished out some interesting insight on his relationships with popular current, and former, teammates including Kobe Bryant:
“It wasn’t that I was uncomfortable with who [Bryant] was as a player or a person, that was never the issue to me,” Howard said. “I think that kind of gets twisted because of how things ended up. Everybody on that team got injured. I think we had five games together before somebody was injured. … I didn’t have an issue back then how Kobe was. Kobe wanted to win as badly as I did. Our personalities are different. I’m not a guy who is going to go off on my teammates. I tried that approach and for me it didn’t work. For Kobe, it works. He’s won a couple championships. He’s also played with some great talent. For the most part, it just wasn’t the time for us to win.”
I found this interesting for a couple of reasons: A) If Howard and Bryant were comfortable with each other, why would Howard try and mimic Bryant’s leadership style? B) I do think had that team been a lot more successful, and healthy, those kind of personality issues are talked about less. It seems like Howard gets that. C) I like the subtle reminder of Kobe needing other stars to win, which most teams need, perhaps alluding to his new partnership with the much younger star in Harden.
Here’s Howard on relationships with teammates and team chemistry:
“You don’t have to be best friends as basketball players but I do believe in chemistry,” Howard said. “I think it makes everything different if a team is really together and they’re all on that same page. They might not like each other, per se, but if you’re on the same page and the chemistry is there, you can play great basketball. You can go back to teams like Detroit, the Bad Boys. Those guys had great chemistry, that’s why they won.”
There is a lot of truth to what Howard is saying: there is a minimum of 12 guys Howard, and every other NBA player, has to deal with on a team in a given season for 82 games. You’re not going to connect with everybody, but it does seem like fans, analysts and writers seem to care far less about the relationships between, for example, Howard and Terrance Jones. We care how Harden and Howard get along, not the other 10-plus guys on the roster, and it’s not really fair. What matters is the guys on the team all buying into what the coaching staff expects of them to achieve the universal goal of winning an NBA championship.
I think Howard just wants to play with guys who can get him one:
“We’re not super close but we do talk, we sit down, we have conversations,” Howard said of Harden. “I’ve never had any issue with James. The biggest reason for me to come to Houston was to play alongside James. I knew I made [the right decision] when I first made it, watching him play and now how he’s grown as a player and a person. It’s great to watch. I came to win. There’s no ego with me, it’s not about me. It’s about us, what we can do together. I’ve won all the individual awards, besides the MVP, and at this point all that stuff is irrelevant. What’s more important is us coming together to win a championship.”
It certainly seems like betting on Harden, Kevin McHale and the Houston front office was the right move for Howard as we are in Year 2 of the Howard and Harden Experience, and even with Howard’s injury issues, the Rockets are a top-4 team in the Western Conference. Without Howard for most of the season, too. Even if Howard says he’s “not super close” with Harden, there haven’t been reports swirling in Houston of a quarrel of some capacity like we’ve seen in Cleveland with Kevin Love and LeBron James, or even Howard and Bryant years ago.
But again, what matters for Howard is winning a championship in Houston, but without that ever-elusive third star, I’m not sure the Rockets can climb that proverbial hill.
Chase Thomas is an associated editor at Crossover Chronicles. Follow him on Twitter: Follow @cuttothechaset
