Dwight Howard feels your pain, LeBron James.
When James was being verbally batted back and forth after his fateful “decision” in the summer of 2010, nobody was rooting for him harder than Howard, the new Houston Rockets center told Yahoo! Sports. Howard says he now knows exactly how James felt, and that he hopes to follow in James’ footsteps of quieting the criticism in the best way possible: with an NBA championship.
“He got hated for a lot of reasons,” Howard told Adrian Wojnarowski. “I was really, really happy when LeBron finally won. I was unhappy that it wasn’t me up there, but I was glad to see him get through that whole thing.”
Don’t get Howard wrong, though. He’s not saying he and James went through the same thing when they both orchestrated their high-profile exits from their teams. No, Howard thinks he got it the toughest, obviously, while players like Chris Paul got off without a scratch.
“Me and LeBron, especially, dealt with that,” Howard said. “Chris didn’t get as much attention as me and LeBron. Every day, people want to know where we’re going. Last year, the year before, it was every day. ‘Come play here. Come here. Where are you going?’ I dealt with that for a whole season.”
Howard, who vowed to be loyal to the Magic, claimed he was thrilled to be with the Lakers and then signed with the Rockets, finally feels like he is on a team capable of winning it all. Well, that’s what he says, anyway. Maybe he really thinks the Rockets are a championship caliber club or maybe he’s just saying that because he thinks it’s what people want to hear, which more or less has been his modus operandi over the last three years.
If fans want Howard to be the bad guy, he says he is fine being the bad guy.
“Last year, I felt like I was the villain,” Howard said. “Now, I feel like I’m an even bigger villain.”
Honestly, what could have ever given him that idea?
Photo via Facebook/Houston Rockets
