Rockets center Dwight Howard continues to deny rumors that he’s looking for a way out of Houston.
The big fella has a player option for next season worth $23.2 million, but he’ll likely hit the free agency market next summer. He says that he’s fully-committed to the Rockets.
USA Today caught a funny exchange between a struggling Dwight and a relentless heckler in Sacramento during Tuesday’s loss to the Kings:
The noise is always louder when you’re losing. And, of course, when you’re Dwight Howard. So it was on Tuesday night in Sacramento, when the Houston Rockets’ latest loss was coming to a close and their embattled big man simply had to say something to the heckler who wouldn’t stop. […] “Go look at my résumé,” Howard hollered as he stood near the end of the bench at Sleep Train Arena. “Go look at my résumé. All y’all do is talk (expletive).”
“I chose to go to Houston (via free agency in the summer of 2013), so why would I just say, ‘I’m not happy’ and leave,” Howard, who is widely expected to become a free agent again this summer, said. “I chose this place, you know what I’m saying? And I want to make this thing work here. Obviously we haven’t been playing great basketball, and personally for myself my numbers don’t seem like I’ve been playing great, but the only thing on my mind is trying to grow as a man and grow as a teammate and a leader. All the BS that’s around, sometimes it is frustrating to hear it, because I know who I am as a man and I know what I’m trying to do for this city.”
Specifically, Howard knows there’s an ill-timed subplot brewing about how he can’t co-exist with fellow All-Star James Harden anymore. But Howard, who missed all but one game in the preseason because of back problems, insists that this is the farthest thing from a repeat of the dysfunctional Kobe Bryant situation that will be front and center yet again in this latest Lakers matchup. […] “People can say what they want about me and James and that whole situation, but I came here and the biggest reason was because of him, because I want both of us to grow and be great basketball players and be great teammates together,” Howard said. “It’s on us to do it. We are the ones who are held accountable for the good things and the bad things that happen to this team, and I came here with that mission, so that both of us can grow. He’s rising as a star, and I’ve seen all the things that he’s done and I’ve been through almost all of the things that he’s done as a basketball player. And I want to help him grow and reach even higher heights. All the other stuff is just noise. I just hate hearing it.”
