Report: Kobe Bryant viewed Dwight Howard leaving Lakers in free agency as ‘a positive’
Oct 25, 2014, 12:30 PM EDT
AP Much has been written about the poor relationship that existed between Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard during their ill-fated season together in Los Angeles.
To sum it up as succinctly and politely as possible, Bryant is ruthlessly competitive, whereas Howard prefers to take a much lighter approach.
The reality is that from a personality standpoint, Howard simply didn’t fit in with a Lakers organization that values championship contention above all else. That’s probably why Bryant sabotaged the free agent pitch meeting with Howard the team had in the summer of 2013, and even though technically L.A. would have had an All-Star talent to be the face of the team once Bryant was gone, Howard simply isn’t cut out to take on that level of responsibility.
It’s not surprising, then, that Bryant views the Lakers’ failure to retain Howard in free agency as a good thing for the franchise.
From Ken Berger of CBSSports.com:
Only weeks before his comeback from the Achilles injury ended so abruptly, Bryant signed a two-year, $48.5 million contract that will pay him $25 million next season at age 37. While the arrangement virtually assured that Bryant will retire as a Laker, it also hindered the team’s quest for a free-agent star around whom it could forge a new path once he’s gone. Though Bryant viewed Dwight Howard’s free-agent departure in 2013 as “a positive,” according to a person close to him, the Lakers barely got this past summer’s prime free agents, James and Anthony, to give the franchise a passing thought. Why is that?
This comes from an excellent longform feature on Bryant that is much more balanced than what we’ve seen from other national outlets recently, and is well worth your time.
As to why free agents have passed on L.A. as a destination, it has little to do with Bryant’s contract. Remember, L.A. was the only team that had max money available to sign Carmelo Anthony last summer without needing to make roster moves first.
The fact that Bryant has had two major injuries that limited him to appearing in just six games last season, along with the depleted state of the rest of the Lakers roster are more concrete reasons that free agents would want to play somewhere else. The Lakers, even with another All-Star in place would still be so far from their stated goal of title contention that those looking for a new team can find one much more ready to win now, and can do so fairly easily.
As for Howard, this recent description (from a feature by Michael Lee of the Washington Post) tells us all we need to know about why he and Bryant clashed so strongly.
Before he ripped the bags of ice from his knees, reached for his green, turtle-shell shaped Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle backpack and walked out of a lounge inside the bowels of Toyota Center in his Mickey Mouse T-shirt, Dwight Howard burst into an old Gospel hymn.
It’s clear that Bryant wasn’t at all interested in seeing the Lakers sign on for five more years of that nonsense.
-
- kobeslapsjordan - Oct 26, 2014 at 1:31 AM
-
GOAT – Kobe
-
- louie311 - Oct 26, 2014 at 10:42 AM
-
Kobe is the MAN.
-
- El Pollo Loco - Oct 26, 2014 at 11:47 AM
-
I hope Kobe signs another inflated extension which keeps even more players away from the Fakers
-
- ranfan12 - Oct 26, 2014 at 12:04 PM
-
Nah, they’ll just sucker someone into trading multiple first round draft picks for him before he gets injured and retires right after it. #conspiracy
-
- lacolem1 - Oct 26, 2014 at 7:01 PM
-
Sure wasn’t nonsense when Dwight was carrying that Lakers team to the playoffs, pretty much by himself.
-
- ranfan12 - Oct 26, 2014 at 9:12 PM
-
Refs were carrying the lakers to the playoffs. .
-
- notdennisrodman - Oct 27, 2014 at 2:46 PM
-
LOL, you’ve got to be trolling…….Go to basketball reference and look at the stats for the 2012-2013 season, and compare Kobe’s to Dwight’s. I cant tell you how many games I saw towards the second half of that season where Kobe dug them out of a hole and would hit 2-3 three pointers in a row, and hit game winning shots. That man balled his ass off. Anytime Dwight would have the opportunity to win the game, he’d miss his FTW’s. That’s one of the main reasons they had a bad season….shooting 49.2% from the line. Also, in the playoffs, Dwight just gave up and they got swept. Pathetic
-
- Kevin S. - Oct 26, 2014 at 8:34 PM
-
I love all these people saying Dwight doesn’t have what it takes to win, to lead a team in the playoffs. Did everybody forget about 2009, when he dragged a team missing it’s second-best player past the defending champion Celtics and the 66-win Cavs? The best running mate he had during that playoff run was an average-at-best Rashard Lewis. All Dwight. When Kobe was in the playoffs with a supporting cast that bad he pouted his way through the second half of an elimination game. Sure Dwight has his issues, and he’s probably never going to be as good as he was before his back injury, but he’s a great player and you can absolutely win a title with him as your centerpiece. Kobe wasn’t willing to let him be that centerpiece.
-
- ranfan12 - Oct 26, 2014 at 9:15 PM
-
Dwight should’ve demanded it like a boss instead. He’ll be seeing the playoffs a lot more and doing work there now.
-
- divan22 - Oct 27, 2014 at 12:36 AM
-
Ahh yes, another classic from the Kobe Klan.
“Dwight’s not a winner!”
Another favorite of mine: calling out LeBron for switching teams because he needed help to win… even though Kobe PUBLICLY DEMANDED A TRADE after his 3rd straight year without Shaq when he couldn’t get the Lakers past the 1st round (or a higher playoff seed than 7th).
“But he never DID switch teams, so that doesn’t count!”
-
- danfrommv - Oct 27, 2014 at 1:50 PM
-
I think DH is a tremendous defender, but his offensive moves are limited at best. With his personality, I think DH needs to be the 3rd best player on his team (but of course he will demand a max contract).
-
- notdennisrodman - Oct 27, 2014 at 3:09 PM
-
Turkoglu and Lewis helped Dwight get that far. You discredit Lewis, but I suggest you look up the overall season stats for the 2008-2009 Magic and you’ll see otherwise. Oh, and go ahead and look at the boxscores from the 09 Finals. The magic would have been spanked even worse if it weren’t for Lewis and Turkoglu. Kareem has gone on the record saying that it was easy to prepare Dwight and Bynum to go against Dwight and his limited game. 1-4 in the 2009 finals
And you’re going to rag on Kobe- Who was on that 09 Finals team? 8 out of the 12 people on that roster aren’t even in the NBA today. Bynum, Odom, Mbenga, Powell, Brown, Walton, Vujacic, and Farmar had to go play overseas before recently returning as a bench player. Don’t forget Morrison and Sun Yue. And it’s not like these guys were that old back then either and just retired. Their careers crumbled after they left the Lakers. Why do you suppose that is?
-
- lidoisle - Oct 27, 2014 at 10:48 AM
-
That’s Kobe, pointing fingers again. He throws everybody under the bus that doesn’t defer to him.
-
- mogogo1 - Oct 27, 2014 at 2:31 PM
-
“feature on Bryant that is much more balanced than what we’ve seen from other national outlets recently”
That’s the part I find pretty funny. I’ve seen numerous attacks on that ESPN article but very few rebuttals of any details in it. No doubt it takes two to tango and Kobe is not as bad as some claim. However, there are several troubling specifics in that ESPN piece that one can only assume are true since nobody has refuted them. 1. Kobe shows up at a meeting with Howard where everyone else is in business attire wearing workout clothes. Can anybody argue that isn’t disrespectful and totally unprofessional? 2. Despite being called back from overseas specifically for the meeting, Kobe totally misses meeting with Carmelo. Is it possible in any way the Lakers left any doubt about when and where the meeting was taking place? 3. Kobe refuses to call Nash when the Lakers are trying to woo him because the great Kobe Bryant cannot be expected to call a 2-time MVP.
Throw in the feud with Shaq, his run-ins with Karl Malone, etc. and you have an amazingly negative picture of Kobe. If even half of these stories are true he’s a nightmare as a teammate. And if even a small percentage of free agents believe any of those stories you have all the explanation you need as to why guys aren’t flocking to the Lakers currently.
