Dwight Howard’s Perilous Fade From Grace
It’s hard to believe, but just six years ago, Dwight Howard was the NBA’s biggest name outside of Kobe and LeBron. Owen Guetschow writes about the big man’s tumultuous career and where his legacy now stands
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When you think of Dwight Howard today, it’s hard to think of anything but overwhelming disappointment.
Sure, you may experience a brief flashback to Howard donning a red cape and soaring to the 2008 Slam Dunk title. Or swatting shots into the fifth row with the Orlando Magic. More likely, however, is that your thoughts will turn to the carousel of teams, setbacks, and claims that locker rooms “hated Dwight Howard.”
These two distinct sets of memories feel like they occured lifetimes apart, yet hardly 5 years separates that larger-than-life, beloved superstar from the current, team-bouncing iteration of Howard. The downfall of the once transcendent talent was as sudden as it was unexpected, causing a once airtight Hall-Of-Fame resume to suddenly fall into doubt (even if he believes the opposite to be true).
Following the 2009 season, you could have said Dwight Howard had a brighter future than anyone in the league not named LeBron James. After upsetting the King in the Eastern Conference Finals, Howard’s Magic played the powerhouse Lakers in a deceivingly-close Finals series, eventually falling 4 games to 1.
A few weeks later, Howard received the first of his three consecutive Defensive Player of the Year awards; he would also come in second in MVP voting to a then-young phenom by the name of Derrick Rose. Standing 6’11’’ with a frame so massive and chiseled he earned the nickname “Superman,” Howard stood poised to rule over the league as the next transcendent big man.
So…what happened?
Before he had become the top prospect in the 2004 draft and named a LeBron-level prospect, Howard had spent his childhood in a devoutly Christian home. The big man played in a Christian high school basketball league, but eventually had to transition to a Christian Firefighters league when his classmates could no longer match up with his size.
One look at Howard’s body and low-post game sent scouts blabbering to their owners about how infatuated they were with the 18-year-old Atlanta native. No thought was given to the rumblings that Howard’s sheltered upbringing and childish persona were ill-suited for the fame and fortune of a professional basketball career. There was simply too much potential in this hulking giant that stood poised to reshape the NBA.
See, while Howard’s religious values and uprising may have been commendable in many regards, they left him utterly unprepared to make the transition to the pros. Howard began his career in Orlando with lofty and righteous aspirations as to what he could accomplish with his newfound fame. Superman was once quoted saying that he aimed to “raise the name of God within the league and throughout the world.”
Unfortunately, the real world didn’t mold so easily to his plans. The Entourage-esque lifestyle he was about to encounter quickly overwhelmed Howard, leaving him floundering in unchartered waters. And while it was obvious to many of Howard’s peers that he was essentially an overgrown child, his unhealthy off-court lifestyle could never overshadow his on-court play.
In other words, no one was complaining when Howard was still dominating the league.
May 30th, 2009 was the date everyone marked down as the moment Dwight made the transition from undeniable star to a Pantheon-level, once-in-a-generation talent. After posting a ridiculous 40 points, 14 rebounds, and 66% shooting in a series-clinching Game 6 win over LeBron and the Cavs in the Eastern Conference Finals, pundits across the league were naming Howard a no-doubt Hall-Of-Famer. With the athleticism, skill set, and playoff experience Howard now possessed, there seemed to be no way he could fail.
And yet, after two more years spent collecting numerous individual and team awards, everything fell apart. Rumors began circling that Howard was unhappy in Orlando and wanted out; that Howard had tried and succeeded in getting his longtime coach Steve Van Gundy fired; and that the Orlando Magic wanted as little to do with Howard as he wanted to do with them. Howard simply wanted more than the Orlando market could offer him. He wanted to be a movie star and pop culture icon, eventually forcing a blockbuster trade to the Los Angeles Lakers for a package of six players and five draft picks.
Howard himself made no doubt about his motivations when shipping out to L.A. The draw of Hollywood, massive endorsement deals, and superstar status that awaited his southern California move coupled quite nicely with the super-team expectations that quickly arose around the Lakers. In a plotline that quickly became cyclical in Howard’s post-Orlando career, his arrival in Los Angeles was greeted with massive optimism. The pairing of Howard with an aging Steve Nash and Kobe Bryant led many around the league to believe the Lakers were shoe-ins to win the 2012–2013 NBA title.
And while the messy breakup with the Magic certainly hadn’t helped Howard’s reputation, fans and analysts were more than willing to forgive the goofy big man for his transgressions under one condition: the Lakers won. Instead of rising to face the weight of these mountainous expectations, however, Superman crumbled.
You would be hard-pressed to find a worse combination of star players on any team than the 2012 versions of Dwight Howard and Kobe Bryant. It is clear what the draw was at the time: pairing one of the most tenacious scorers in league history with the most dominant post player of his generation was — and still is — a no-brainer. Unfortunately for the Lakers, this combination was far superior on paper than it was in reality.
Kobe is well-known for being one of the most intense basketball players in NBA history. Anecdotes from many former teammates paint a picture of a dedicated worker and fierce competitor that expected the same out of his teammates.
Dwight Howard was… not. Following a major back surgery to repair a herniated disk in 2012, Howard was asked how he was rehabbing in preparation for the expected title run in Los Angeles. His response may have been the first glimpse into how poorly he was suited for his new team’s culture, telling Sports Illustrated he had spent his time “building Legos, playing video games and watching cartoon movies.”
Fast forward to April 28, 2013. Just one year into his stint with the Lakers, Howard is already peeling off the purple-and-gold jersey for the last time. Los Angeles has just been swept in the first round by the Spurs, and it was clear to all involved that Howard wouldn’t be returning for another season.
Animosity between the team’s stars had boiled beneath the surface all year, and while Howard’s injury-plagued season was by no means poor (17 points, 12 rebounds per game on 58% shooting), he was nowhere near as dominant as the Dwight of years past. Combine the disappointment of the Lakers failing to meet expectations with his teammates’ distaste of his immaturity, and there was little question as to whether the Lakers would pass on resigning their all-star center.
The prevailing sentiment around the league was that Dwight’s stint in Los Angeles was nothing more than a minor setback. What no one but Howard truly seemed to understand was that it wasn’t an injury or quarrels with teammates that stood ready to derail his career. The only thing that could really slow Superman, and eventually would, was himself.
For the former pillar of Christianity — a guy who spent the first few years of his career refusing to go out with teammates — a whole lot had changed. Within a few years, Howard had five children, all with different women. He began partying, spending time at strip clubs, and becoming a person that both his younger self and current family no longer recognized nor accepted. “All of a sudden, I went from the good guy to the devil,” he told Sports Illustrated in 2017. Surrounded by enablers and leeches who sapped Howard of both his money and happiness, it would be years before he managed to regain control of his spiraling life.
On the court, the next five seasons would be almost as tumultuous as his personal life. Whereas for the majority of his career Howard had been able to contain his personal shortcomings off the court, his season in L.A. proved to be his undoing. In just a few short years, Howard had transformed from golden boy to the pariah of the NBA.
It’s July 2018. Less than 6 years ago, Howard, now 32, was considered one of the five best players in the league.
Nowadays, the Brooklyn Nets — the Nets! — traded for him with the sole purpose of clearing cap space. After his buyout, Howard would decide to sign with the Wizards for the veteran’s minimum, the seventh team of his career and his fifth in the last four years.
Even after all the disappointment Howard has generated in this second phase of his career, something about his perpetually-untapped potential remains too enviable to pass up. The talent is still there and, quite honestly, undeniable. I mean, this is a guy who just put up 32 points and 30 rebounds, and most of us didn’t even bat an eye.
Year after year, the same articles are published; how Howard has matured and rehabilitated his image, how this year will be the one he returns to relevance. And year after year, another team convinces themselves that all Howard needs is a fresh start to return to form. At this point, however, it seems far more likely that Howard will go down in history as a warning tale than rediscover his brilliance.
His unceasing jokes and inability to take his job seriously — as well as his insistence on receiving the same low-post touches he earned while dominating the league — leads both his teammates and coaches to plead for his dismissal. Shortly after his celebrated arrival, teams are doing everything they can to rid themselves of Howard, but not before he has managed to commit irreparable damage.
For Howard’s recent coaches, the cultural devastation that follows the big man like a plague results in more than just his eventual dismissal. Of the past 7 coaches Howard has played for, 6 have been fired within a year of coaching him. Howard continues to be a locker room cancer, and yet teams continue to sign him year after year. This is the never ending conundrum of Dwight Howard: how could a player this talented be so utterly destructive?
While it may feel as if Howard’s shortcomings have been a constant storyline in recent NBA memory, he still remains young enough to have multiple impact years left in his career. For a player once deemed an inevitable Hall-Of-Famer, Howard’s odds at receiving the esteemed honor are shrinking by the day, which makes this upcoming year all the more critical. None of his recent seasons have been disastrous on the court, so the real question remains: can this talented man-child convince a locker room he’s worth keeping around?
Howard has certainly displayed enough talent, won enough awards, and had a large enough on-court impact to be honored in Springfield. What is left to be seen, however, is if the destruction his immaturity causes will outweigh his accomplishments.
Because Superman is running out of time to rehab his image, running the risk of becoming the most talented player to get snubbed from the Hall — no kryptonite required.
