In an appearance on “In Depth with Graham Bensigner”, the now-Los Angeles Lakers big man Dwight Howard talked on his reputation:
“The one thing that I really hated was just hearing people say I was a cancer in the locker room, or I’m not good to have around teammates. That really affected me for a while… How could somebody who’s won Community Assist Awards be told by everybody that you have a great character, people-person, but all of a sudden bad in the locker room? … One year I got Teammate of the Year.
And then the same summer, like, ‘He’s a bad teammate.’ And so I’m like, ‘This does not add up. There’s no way somebody could be the teammate of the year but a bad teammate’ … But it had me so upset where, I really didn’t wanna be around just people in general, ’cause I’m like, ‘Man, they gon’ think I’m a bad person, so I might as well just hide’,” Howard said, per Heavy.
The 33-year-old missed most part of the 2018-19 season owing to injuries, averaging 12.8 points along with 9.2 rebounds per game. As a Laker, he averaged 17.1 points, 12.4 rebounds and 2.4 blocks per contest.
