As I played NBA 2K17, I decided to create the Seattle Supersonics. I found the authentic jerseys and everything, now I just needed to finish the expansion draft and find some players in free agency. I made offers to Lebron James and Kevin Durant and was quickly spurned. I looked at my roster and realized that I needed someone to put with my roster of seventy somethings. I noticed that the best player available was rated an 84 and only 30 years old, then I saw the name...Dwight Howard. For some reason, I immediately scoffed. I scoffed at the idea of video game Dwight Howard. I started to think, why do I feel this way about Dwight Howard? I want to say something crazy, but I don't think that the hatred of Dwight Howard has anything to do with Dwight Howard. I think it has to do with us and the narrative that we have been fed.
As much as Kobe and Shaq at one time hated each other, they seem to have one thing in common, their disdain for Dwight Howard. We'll get to Kobe in a minute, but let's start with Shaq.
The Kobe feud has been more recent and to be quite honest, I do not see Kobe's point of view at all. Dwight Howard famously joined the Lakers in 2012 and it was supposed to be Dwight, Kobe, Steve Nash, and Pau Gasol leading the Lakers to the championship. Instead, Steve Nash got hurt and when your team is all aging and old in today's NBA with spacing and shooting you are not going to be good. What gets lost in that season is how great Howard was, despite playing the majority of the season hurt. The Lakers only won 45 games earning the 7th seed and getting swept by the Spurs in the playoffs. The Lakers offense was great, but their defense was atrocious. Howard was the lone bright spot on defense as the Lakers allowed lay up lines for him to deal with. After the season Howard decided to leave Los Angeles and join the Houston Rockets.
During his time in Houston, Dwight Howard had some good years with them, but his time ran out as he and Harden were not mixing together well. Howard signed in Atlanta last season and I can say that it was probably his worst as a pro. He averaged a career low in minutes and his lowest scoring season since he was a rookie. He was traded this summer to the Charlotte Hornets and it seems that the city is buzzing (nice!) with some idea that maybe he isn't done. I don't think he is. I think Dwight Howard in some ways has been the victim to two guys who have their own legacy issues that we will get to later. His negative effect on teams has been overblown and not enough emphasis on how good he is as a big man. His ability to defend and alter shots at the rim along with his ability to finish in traffic helped get a team to the Finals. We have to really start thinking about why we hate Dwight Howard so much because part of me feels like it is undeserved.