When Dwight Howard decided to team up with James Harden and the Houston Rockets, many thought it would drastically help the team. Howard himself thought they would be the new Kobe and Shaq. Unfortunately, things didn’t work out that way, and like others before, Howard’s relationship with Harden and the Rockets soured. He has the opportunity to opt out of the $23.2 million final year of his contract, which is likely to happen. Now he’s opening up about the situation.
ESPN: You mentioned your season in Houston didn’t end the way you wanted. You have also admitted you were “disinterested” during parts of the year. Why was that?
Howard: “There were times I was disinterested because of situations that happened behind the scenes that really hurt me. It left me thinking, ‘This is not what I signed up for.”’
ESPN: What specifically are you referring to?
Howard: “I felt like my role was being reduced. I went to [Rockets general manager] Daryl [Morey] and said, ‘I want to be more involved.’ Daryl said, ‘No, we don’t want you to be.’ My response was, ‘Why not? Why am I here?’ It was shocking to me that it came from him instead of our coach. So I said to him, ‘No disrespect to what you do, but you’ve never played the game. I’ve been in this game a long time. I know what it takes to be effective.”’
ESPN: Some of your teammates in Houston didn’t appreciate your “disinterest.” Any regrets on how you handled it?
Howard: “My friends kept telling me, ‘Even if you aren’t getting shots, there are so many other things you can control while you are on the floor.’ And they were right. I allowed not getting the ball to affect me. That’s on me. As a big, someone who has been the focal point of the team, who is still young, who still has some great years in front of me, you run the floor, you sprint as hard as you can, you duck in, and still, you don’t get the ball. It brings you down. It sucks the energy out of you. I had long conversations with people close to me who said, ‘Dwight, this is going to make you look bad. Don’t keep doing this.’ So I listened to them.”
ESPN: Your relationship with Harden seems to have deteriorated along with the team’s performance this season. What happened?
Howard: “I don’t know. … I want to figure that out, too. I’ve been trying to wrap my mind around this season, what went wrong, and sometimes you can allow outside things to interrupt the circle. That probably happened with us.”
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source: ESPN
