There is no doubting that tension rose between Dwight Howard and the rest of the Los Angeles Lakers during the 2012-13 season. After the big man signed with the team, the Lakers were expected to be in contention for an NBA Championship. Their roster was stacked with Howard and Kobe Bryant leading the way. Except that is not exactly how things panned out. The Lakers struggled heavily all season. Howard faced numerous injuries and everything ended in a bitter split.
Howard departed to the Houston Rockets for a team slightly less marquee than the Lakers. Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com reports one reason Howard left was because players refused to publicly defend him while the center played through injuries. Howard constantly battled pain after recovering from offseason back surgery. He was also fighting through a shoulder injury. This left his playing time on the court inconsistent. Criticism rose from everywhere and yet no one gave any shout outs of support.
Shelburne details how specifically, veterans like Bryant and Steve Nash never came out and said anything. The three butted heads in the team meeting last week when the Lakers attempted to pitch Howard to stay. The center felt disrespected by the lack of effort given by teammates who did little to mute the media.
Bryant had been critical of Howard throughout the season. With the team expected to play so well, as losses began to pile up, blame needed to be placed. Bryant had made public comments about how Howard did not know how to play through some pain and he needed to be on the court when the team needed him most.
Howard has always been known as a player that cared deeply about his public image. Always the crowd pleaser, the idea of him becoming upset with media coverage is not hard to imagine. He left millions on the table from the Lakers to join Houston so it is not hard to see this report being true.
Howard has not exactly been helping him with is free agency parade. Shaquille O'Neal recently said he did not believe Howard could handle the pressures of playing in a large market like Los Angeles and he needed to go play in a smaller area like Houston. Whatever the reason, Howard is no longer part of Laker Nation and more details of the reasons why are sure to surface.
