It turns out that Dwight Howard and Shaquille O’Neal are closer than we thought. The two big men have more in common than simply their love of the Orlando Magic and the nickname “Superman.” Shaq and Howard both want to own a basketball team. He actually almost made it once, but his former agent betrayed him.
The two-time NBA champion revealed how his old agent defrauded him of $7 million in an episode of his talk program Above The Rim With DH12. Howard took a deep breath and said, “How did you feel when you first found out?” to a question from one of the co-hosts. He said :
“What was my mental? My mental was I wanted to find him and beat the h*ll out of him. Like, I wanted to kill him.”
As if losing his own money to fraud wasn’t awful enough, Howard’s tale takes a turn for the worse. You see, Dwight wanted to buy a share in a WNBA team in 2020. He didn’t do it for entrepreneurial or charitable reasons; he was just doing it for his children. He said :
“My plan that I had was, I was looking to buy the Atlanta Dream. The basketball team for women. And so I was like, man, I wanna really do this cause I got two daughters. One day they’re gonna wanna play basketball. I can set it up to where they can play for the Atlanta Dream one day when they get older,”
Dwight Howard was unable to completely control a basketball team at the time because he was still an NBA player. With a group of investors, he therefore made the decision to press further. His intention was to let the other players take center stage as the group’s “face” while Howard completed his NBA career. He had even discussed his desire to remain in command behind the scenes with the Dream’s front office and ownership.
DH12 felt more confident about the agreement as a result. He said : . “Like I really thought that this was gonna be my team. So I gave the group the money, and the next thing I know, I didn’t hear from the people no more. They start disappearing. And then I looked online, it was breaking news. They said that some other people had bought the Atlanta Dream,”
The former agent of Dwight Howard was taken into custody on criminal charges in March of 2023. According to court records, he had funded his personal purchases with the $7 million. Thankfully, Dwight’s ambitions of becoming a homeowner would not end here. The former DPOY revealed earlier this year that he had joined the Taiwan Mustangs, a basketball team in the league, as a part-owner.
As of right now, he is the only hooper with ownership interest in the league they play in. Other NBA players may find it attractive to play for Dwight Howard late in their careers if he can lure in more well-known players and increase his investment.
