Photo Credit: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports
Hawks Players Apparently Were “Screaming With Jubilation” When Dwight Howard Was Traded
Everything was meant to change for the better, when Dwight Howard returned ‘home’ to Atlanta before the start of last year’s season. Now, one year later, it turns out that it didn’t.
The once most feared and most dominant big man in the league, now is on his way to start the new season with his 5th team in the last seven years. Ever since Dwight Howard left the Orlando Magic, his career took a turn for the worse. Many say that Howard himself is the one to blame. People have called him a ‘locker room cancer’ and ‘waste of talent’ numerous times.
Exemplarily, here’s what CBS Sports’ Bill Reiter once said:
“The Dwight Howard nightmare, the nightmare that is believing in this guy’s massive and incredible talent went to a new low last night when the Hawks, trying to turn this skid around, trying to get back on track, lost to the lowly Orlando Magic,” Reiter said. “I get it, the Magic are a different team, but as you know, Dwight Howard once played for that team, and you would think a sense of pride would try to help him to do whatever it takes to get the win. And, like, here’s the thing about Dwight, and it’s not just true in Atlanta as, basically, the sky starts to fall on the Hawks and that organization: He has, in his career, certainly from the end of his Orlando tenure until today, at every stop, been a team killer, a chemistry killer, a coach killer to say the least.”
Reiter goes on to describe the 31-year-old Howard as a “waste of talent,” a “momentum killer” and a “locker room cancer,” adding that he “subtracts from the sum of all human joy in every basketball setting that the steps into.”
via CBS Sports
Now, on his latest Podcast, Zach Lowe said he heard stories of Hawks players screaming with jubilation into their phones, when finding out that Howard was traded:
“Hawks players learning about the trade and screaming with jubilation into their phones…
“You ask why, and one account was that Dwight would give these speeches before the game about how everyone is playing hard, we want unity, we’re going to… and then go out and play like a blah game where he demands post touches and doesn’t rotate as hard as he could. And everyone is like, ‘Why are you speaking in the locker room?’ But that’s all anecdotal. It’s just crazy how these stories come out after every stop in his career.”
Every single time Howard leaves a team, there is this kind of backlash. Makes me wonder why Dwight hasn’t tried to change yet.
