Not so long ago, Dwight Howard was preparing for his first season with the Los Angeles Lakers, and almost everyone in the NBA had the Lakers going to the Finals. However, fast forward a year, and now Howard is in Houston and there are a lot of doubts lingering with the Lakers.
Over the summer, Howard decided to join the third team in his NBA career by leaving Los Angeles and joining the Houston Rockets. For the first time in history, a high profiled name willingly left the Lakers and chose to sign with another team.
Howard spoke to the media recently, and the Los Angeles Times writes that Howard believes it took guts for him to leave the Lakers:
“I said, ‘You know what? People are going to hate me for whatever reason, so I can’t allow that to stop me from making my decision,'” continued Howard. “I thought that my decision took a lot of guts because everybody’s saying, ‘How could you leave the Lakers and 6 billion fans?’ But I don’t care about being an outcast or about being somebody that may look bad. All I’ve got to do is win now, and I’m in the right situation.”
The Lakers have a rich history of successful big men, and the front office was hoping Howard would one day join the elite pedigree of centers. However, Howard is now in Texas, and the Lakers must decide how to prepare for the future. With the center gone, the Lakers have a lot of cap space to work with in the 2014 offseason and are hoping to rebuild the franchise.
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