Image via Complex Original
There was a point in time where a Dwight Howard free agent sweepstakes would have captured the collective attention of the basketball world. Say, the summer of 2013. This offseason, not so much.
After a brutal breakup in Orlando, a feud with Kobe Bryant in L.A. and then a drama-laden three years in Houston, Howard’s reputation around the league and amongst fans has taken a nosedive.
Given how many people aren’t too fond of Howard, it’s not surprising that there are plenty of videos of people talking smack about him. There's the time Kevin Garnett barked at him before giving him a headbutt and whipping the ball at him. And the time Jon Hamm roasted him at the ESPYs. And the famous Stan Van Gundy interview where he did his best #TeaLizard impression with a Diet Pepsi. None surprising.
What is surprising, though, is how many times this kind of stuff was said TO HIS FACE.
There's something undeniably sad about the current state of Dwight Howard. He's gone from jovial class clown to the NBA's sad clown. Maybe another eight-figure contract will cheer him up, but some things—like dignity—can't be bought.
Before non-Shaq Superman signs on with a new team, we rounded up eight videos of Dwight Howard getting clowned to his face. Here's to hoping a solid 2016-17 season will put some RESPEK back on his name.
Charles Barkley asks Howard why he's so hated.
Like many athletes do when their team is out of the playoffs, Howard did some fill-in work with Inside the NBA on TNT. He was probably expecting some of the typical lighthearted pregame banter that normally happens on that show. Instead, Charles Barkley decided to probe Howard as to why he is so hated around the league. This 14-minute ordeal quickly went viral, and serves as one of the most awkward moments in the show's history.
Skip Bayless says Howard “Looks like Tarzan and sometimes plays like Jane.”
Love him or hate him, Skip Bayless has a long history of trash-talking star athletes. He did it to Terrell Owens, Chris Bosh, Richard Sherman, and Kevin Durant. Funny enough, most athletes were able to return the favor by trash-talking him back. Bayless memorably got the better of Howard in this 2010 interview in which Skip said Dwight Howard “Looks like Tarzan, and sometimes plays like Jane.”
Los Angeles fan taunts Howard in the middle of a game.
Many fans at games will scream this kind of stuff about players, but most fans don’t have seats that are close enough to actually be heard. This fan taunted Dwight Howard for about a minute, and helped his daughter get over 5,000 retweets in the process. Howard responded by telling the fan to “Let it go.”
Quoting “Frozen” probably isn’t the best move if you have a reputation of being soft. Speaking of the soft reputation...
Kobe calls Dwight Howard soft.
You don’t want to be on Kobe Bryant’s bad side. Nobody (outside of maybe Smush Parker or Kwame Brown) knows this better than Dwight Howard. Howard infamously played one underwhelming season in L.A. before leaving to go to Houston.
Things got a bit chippy between the two in their first matchup since Howard’s exit from the Lakers. Bryant responded to a Howard elbow by calling him “soft” while repeatedly saying “Try me.”
Kobe. Again.
Bryant wasn’t happy this night. This is probably partly due to the fact that the Lakers were blown out, and partly due to his disdain for Howard. In this one, Kobe says…well, the video really speaks for itself.
Orlando fan heckles Howard, Howard responds with predictable “Your Mom” joke.
It’s no surprise that Howard didn’t get the warmest of welcomes when he returned to Orlando in 2013. But it is a little surprising that Howard responded to his backlash.
According to Deadspin, a Magic fan told Howard something along the lines of “I hate you.” Howard responded by saying "Your mama hate me, too. She liked me last night!"
Very original. He probably would have been better off with George Costanza’s “jerk store” line.
Howard tells Lakers fan to “Come out here.”
None of the fanbases of teams Howard used to play for seem to like him very much. And Howard doesn’t seem to enjoy going back to these places, either. Here’s another fan altercation, which seems even worse than the first one.
Kevin Durant curses at Dwight Howard.
Durant and Howard are both free agents this summer, but it’s unlikely they will look to form a dream team. KD confronted Dwight Howard from the sidelines when the benches cleared in this 2014 Thunder-Rockets matchup, throwing some foul words his way.
If you think that’s bad, you should see some of Durant’s tweets from 2009 which somehow haven’t been deleted yet.