The Houston Rockets faithful were excited about what Dwight Howard could do when he teamed up with James Harden in 2013. With Howard and Harden leading the charge, the Rockets went deep in the 2015 playoffs before losing to the eventual champions, the Golden State Warriors, in the conference finals.
After losing in the first round the following season, the Rockets ended the Harden-Howard duo and shipped the All-Star center to the Atlanta Hawks. At the time, there were rumors about conflict between the two stars, with The Superman reportedly unhappy to be second-fiddle to The Beard.
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Ahead of his debut with the Hawks, Howard addressed the burning issue. He denied having problems with Harden. Instead, D12 vaguely insisted that their partnership was just not meant to happen at the time.
“Well, sometimes things don’t work like they should,” Dwight told ESPN of playing with James. “I’ve never had an issue with James. I wish him nothing but the best. I just think the timing of everything was a little bit different. That’s OK.”
“All that stuff did was just mold me for this moment here, this organization, this team [the Hawks],” he pointed out.”They’ve asked me to be a leader. It’s my job to come in here every night and provide physicality and the leadership that this team needs.”
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Howard said the media made him look bad
Since parting ways with the Orlando Magic, Howard earned a reputation for being a bad co-star. After a dramatic split with the Los Angeles Lakers and another controversial departure from Houston, Howard was perceived as a player who could never get along well with another star.
According to Howard, that was never the case with his stints with the Lakers and the Rockets, respectively. In his defense, D12 blamed the media for making up a false narrative and choosing him to be the root of all the controversies when, in reality, there was really nothing to talk about.
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Howard made it clear that he never hated Harden or Kobe Bryant and his exit in both LA and Houston had nothing to do with their relationships as teammates.
“After the situation in Orlando, I never really came out and said my side of the story about what was going on there while I was there and the reasons for me wanting to leave,” Howard once explained. “After that, people just decided that, ‘He’s not going to talk about it, so we might as well come up with a narrative and what we think went on in LA and what went on with Kobe [Bryant] and what we think happened with James [Harden]. I never had a personal vendetta with either one of those guys.”
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Howard’s downfall and resurgence
Howard was never named an All-Star since leaving the Rockets. His game dwindled, and a major back injury made everything worse for D12.
In 2019, Howard embraced the role of a role player and rejoined the Lakers as a backup big man.
At that point in his career, Howard was no longer a superstar, and he was totally fine with it. He ended up winning an NBA championship with the Lakers that season.
Howard played two more seasons as a reserve for the Lakers and Philadelphia 76ers before retiring in 2022 and is soon to be rightfully inducted into the basketball Hall of Fame.
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This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Aug 27, 2025, where it first appeared in the Old School section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.