It will remain one of the biggest flops in history. In 2012, Dwight Howard, then the most dominant pivot in the league, scrambled to land at the Lakers. In a monumental trade, he arrives in LA at the same time as Steve Nash to help Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol get their hands on the title.
There’s even talk of a potential best five of all time with Ron Artest. But the experience will turn into a fiasco. Nash will quickly injure his back. D12 arrives injured and will never be 100%, while Kobe, by dint of playing the hero, ruptured his Achilles tendon just before the playoffs.
Finally, the Angelenos will come out in the first round after finishing 8th in the regular season. The relationship between Kobe and Howard, who left the following summer in Houston, is severely singled out. And to believe Jalen Rose, Bryant knew even before training camp that their duo would be doomed.
“I was next to him the first time he spoke with Dwight Howard. I’ve never said it before. I know what they were talking about. Dwight was excited. He asked him about Los Angeles. He asked Kobe how he could help him make him better He asked him things unrelated to the pitch Lots of stuff.
After all these questions, Kobe told him, ‘I’m going to show you how you win titles. What do you think of that ?’. He hung up and said ‘his head isn’t right side up. It will not work’. And it didn’t work. “
The following seasons, the two men then trashtalked well on the field, in particular Kobe who liked to call Howard a “soft guy”. Before making peace last year, a few months before the death of the legend of the Lakers.
Dwight Howard thanks Kobe for calling him a “soft guy”
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