Dwight Howard, a key member of the Lakers’ championship-winning staff in 2020, lately opened up about his contract negotiations with the Purple and Gold following their triumphant season. The veteran middle expressed his want to re-sign with the staff and shared the behind-the-scenes story of how the negotiations unfolded by his agent.
In Howard’s personal phrases, he defined, “Might [the Lakers] simply give me two years? I simply wish to be someplace steady to finish my profession. We simply gained a championship. And I felt like I deserved only a minimize. It ain’t received to be quite a bit, only a method to finish my profession with the Lakers and trip it out on the sundown.” Nevertheless, he quickly found that the Lakers had been solely providing him a one-year deal.
Reflecting on the scenario, Howard revealed the rollercoaster of feelings he skilled in the course of the negotiations. He expressed his preliminary pleasure to just accept the supply however was quickly knowledgeable that the Lakers had withdrawn their supply. Howard had even taken to social media, tweeting his intention to return to the Lakers, solely to be requested by his agent to delete the tweet.
“So [my agent] was like ‘Effectively, they’re solely going to offer you a yr.’ And so I used to be like ‘For actual?’ and it was like ‘Yeah.’ And I used to be like ‘Give me quarter-hour to consider it’ no matter,” Howard recalled. “After which I hung up the telephone after which I referred to as him again and I used to be like ‘Inform them I’ll do it.’ If I do good, hopefully they’ll give me one other contract.
“Then he referred to as again and he stated ‘The Lakers don’t have a proposal for you.’ I had tweeted proper after that I used to be going to return to the Lakers as a result of I needed to make that call so I had tweeted ‘I’m coming again’ or one thing like that. After which after I tweeted that, he referred to as me again and stated ‘Yo, you bought to delete that tweet bro.’ I used to be like ‘Why?’ He was like ‘The Lakers, they not gonna give you.’ So I used to be like ‘Rattling.’”
The Lakers’ choice to deal with enhancing the middle place left Howard feeling disillusioned, as he interpreted it as a slight. “They stated they needed to get higher on the middle place, so I form of took that like a slap within the face,” he stated. Regardless of the setback, he finally signed with the Philadelphia 76ers in November 2021. Remarkably, Howard made a stunning return to the Lakers for the 2021-2022 season, signing a veteran’s minimal contract of $2.6 million.