In a recent appearance on The GAUDs Show, former NBA star Dwight Howard revealed a past incident that nearly got him into a lot of trouble.
During his time with the Houston Rockets, Howard tweeted “Free Palestine” in support of Palestinian fans he met at a movie theater in Houston. However, the tweet quickly drew backlash, and Howard almost found himself facing severe repercussions. Howard recounted,
“When you’re in the NBA, there are a lot of things you want to say, but you know if you say it, there’s gonna be repercussions. You could get into a lot of trouble. For example, a couple of years ago when I played for the Houston Rockets, I tweeted ‘Free Palestine,’ and I damn near got kicked out of the league for it.
I was just trying to figure out why. Before that, I the conversation happened with some Palestinians, and they were telling me… I actually went to the movies one day in Houston, and a group of Palestinians were like ‘Hey man, we’re big fans of you. Can we watch movies with you?’ I was like, ‘Cool.’ When I was in Houston—or even in Orlando and other cities I played in—I would take fans to movies, to Main Event, or do big events at Dave & Buster’s. After the movie, we took pictures, and they asked me to bring awareness to what was going on in their country. Me, having a big heart, thought, ‘This is the Christian thing to do’. I want people to know the struggles y’all have.
So, I tweeted Free Palestine. Less than 10 minutes later, I got a call from the Commissioner of the NBA, agents, people working with my foundation at that time, Texas… ‘you gotta erase this tweet, you gotta take this down’… and I’m like ‘what did I do that was so bad? Can somebody explain this to me?'”
Howard’s experience highlights the pressure NBA players face when expressing their opinions on controversial topics, as speaking out can lead to significant consequences for their careers.
