Dwight Howard is still talking.
Over the weekend, Howard sat with ESPN’s Ric Bucher for an interview, to further explain his reasons for leaving Orlando and more importantly, the back and forth that followed.
When asked if he had any regrets for the events that led to his trade to the Los Angeles Lakers, his response was:
“I don’t have any regrets, you know. I think everything happened the way that it was meant to happen,” Howard said. “I really just wish some of the lies and some of the things being said didn’t come out the way it did, you know.
Like the lies about wanting to be there, then not wanting to be there, then wanting to be there, and then not? Those lies?
When asked about why he was so undecided, he said:
“And it was a tug of war between my feelings and the fans and everybody else and their feelings and what happened to LeBron. And I saw him — everybody hated him for leaving Cleveland and what he did,” Howard said about LeBron James’ free-agency move. “I never wanted anybody to hate me, you know. I wanted everybody to love me, you know, like me, for sticking around and doing what they wanted me to do. And making everybody else happy. And that was a valuable lesson for me, you know. I can’t make everybody happy.”
Now this, I can understand. No one WANTS to be hated. Sure, it drives some of the best. But no one sets out to be vilified. He saw that LeBron went through being the goat for 2 seasons, and didn’t want to experience that. But his key mistake was not picking a side and staying with it. LeBron kept his plans a secret until his contract was done. Even Carmelo Anthony decided his wanted to be traded, and stuck with it until he was dealt to the Knicks.
Dwight Howard has always been a fan favorite, and now that this saga is officially over, he may very well become one again. But now, it’s time for him to shut up and repair the image he drastically damaged.