Dwight Howard was traded to the Hornets towards the end of last season, and of course another bad teammate story has surfaced. According to Zach Lowe’s podcast, Howard’s Hawks teammates screamed with joy once his trade to the Hornets was announced.
“I don’t know what it is. No one has kind of gotten to the bottom of why. It can’t just be the corny jokes – and my god, does he tell the corniest jokes – but I’ve heard multiple stories of Hawks players learning about the trade and screaming with jubilation into their phones.
According to Lowe, his team also questioned why Howard gave pre-game speeches about grinding hard during the game, only to pout and not give effort if he didn’t get the ball in the post. Howard was asked about this report and gave this response:
“I think it’s stupid,” Howard told reporters. “How can you win an award for best teammate in your locker room but at the same time be the most negative guy. It doesn’t make sense, so whoever said that obviously was trying to make a story. But I think that anyone who’s been in that locker room knows who I am as a player and as a person. They know that in the locker room I’m not a guy who’s gonna bring out all the negativity through whispers, if I have anything to say I’m gonna bring it to you, so all that stuff is always false.”
Howard did get some support from his former teammate Malcolm Delaney with the following tweet.
Good dude man.. not sure about this one https://t.co/1U078onL6f
— malcolm delaney (@foe23) September 26, 2017
Dwight Howard’s history of burning bridges after he leaves a team and subsequent finger pointing at everyone else but himself, makes it difficult to believe his latest defense of his behavior. A better option for Dwight would have been to not respond to the allegations, and focus on moving forward with his new team.