Dwight Howard, WWE Superstar? NBA Free Agent Participates In Tryouts

Dwight Howard’s NBA career appears to be nearing its end, but the All-Star center may have a run in the squared circle.

WWE kicked off SummerSlam weekend in Nashville with a number of festivities, including a public tryout. These tryouts typically welcome former college athletes, body builders, CrossFit athletes and independent wrestlers. But Howard also made an appearance Thursday.

Howard told journalist Arash Markazi, “He legit wants to join the WWE one day.”

As part of the WWE tryouts, talents are instructed to cut a promo — traditionally, they are not given a prompt, and coaches have their own criteria of what they are looking for when a talent cuts a promo off the cuff.

Howard went out on stage and cut a stereotypical pro wrestling promo, but according to Markazi, his day didn’t end there. The All-NBA center was around for hours after cutting more promos with others at the tryout. Howard also met Paul “Triple H” Levesque, who is now in charge of creative in WWE and is head of talent relations, and had a small chat with him.

Howard, 36, played last season with the Los Angeles Lakers. The 18-year NBA veteran has been linked to teams who are in need of a backup center, like the Boston Celtics.

Howard’s career has been plagued by injures, and perhaps after securing an NBA title with the Lakers in 2020, Howard is looking at life after basketball, and it possibly might be in a WWE ring.