It seems everyone is adding their own little tidbit to the Kobe and Dwight Howard drama brewing in LA, including Dwight’s father. The superstar center’s father wasn’t too pleased with the Black Mamba’s public pressure applied to his son. Read more after the jump.
Dwight Howard, Sr. defended his son in an interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, saying that Lakers guard Kobe Bryant was wrong to pressure Dwight Jr. to play with a shoulder injury and criticizing coach Mike D’Antoni for not intervening.
“I told him before he said it publicly, ‘It’s your career. No person can say what you need to do or not do. You can’t worry about what Kobe or anybody else says,’” the elder Howard said. “Nobody can say what Kobe said — that’s stepping into another man’s shoes. I understand what Kobe was trying to do, but he went about it the wrong way. He’s trying to win a championship. But Dwight has to tell Kobe, ‘I appreciate your opinion, but that doesn’t matter. We’re two men on this team. We need to be reasonable about this.’”
Dwight Sr. said he believed Bryant was trying to motivate his son, but that the advice was misplaced, adding: “The problem is the coach. (D’Antoni) needs to step in and say, ‘You guys have got to be quiet. We’re trying to secure something here. Dwight is probably looking at the coach, thinking, ‘What are you going to do?’ I promise, if that had been Stan Van Gundy, that wouldn’t have happened. (Howard) wouldn’t have been admonished publicly. I think the coach has a lot to do with who controls Kobe’s mouth right now.”
Dwight recently sat out three games after re-aggravating a shoulder injury. Bryant pushed for urgency saying they didn’t have time for Howard’s injury to heal, urging him to play through it; something Kobe later denied. Following Kobe’s comments Dwight returned for the Lakers game against the Celtics and Bobcats despite responding “He’s not a doctor, I’m not a doctor,” and that, “This is my career, this is my future, this is my life.”
