It's the hard law of the NBA, and unless a player has a “no-trade clause,” he can't use a veto to stop a trade. Dwight Howard paid the price at the Magic, who sent him to the Lakers after being eliminated in the first round of the playoffs in 2011, an absence due to injury in 2012, and above all a big argument with Stan Van Gundy.
But joining Kobe Bryant and his gang was clearly not what Dwight Howard wanted, even though the Lakers were coming off a third-place finish in the West in the regular season and a conference semifinal appearance.
“It's tough playing with Kobe. First, you expect him to win, and then everybody expected Kobe and I to be the new Kobe and Shaq,” remembers Howard. “I just came back from an injury, I’m still dealing with all the mental stress from Orlando, and now I have to go to LA and play with Kobe Bryant. They beat us in the Finals (in 2009). I was upset because I had to go to LA, nobody ever knew I didn’t want to go.”
A preference for the Nets over the Lakers
That summer, the Lakers also got an aging Steve Nash back, but the season was disappointing, even catastrophic. Kobe Bryant and his team finished a modest 7th in the West and were swept by the Spurs in the first round of the playoffs.
“I wanted to beat the Lakers, they had just beaten us in the Finals, so in my mind I was like, ‘Why would I go to the team that just beat us?’ I wanted to go to Brooklyn and start my career over, but I got sent to LA.”recalls the pivot. “It didn’t work out, and I made the decision to leave out of emotion… I didn’t really make a smart, logical decision, I just made a gut decision at that moment.”
What are the differences between Kobe and LeBron?
Leaving his ego aside, he would return to the Lakers in 2019 to win his only ring, alongside LeBron James, a very different leader than what he experienced with Kobe Bryant.
“They have this presence, and when Kobe or LeBron walks in the room, their presence is there and you can feel it. Kobe was more of a silent killer,” describes the eight-time All-Star. He didn't really talk a lot. LeBron likes to have fun, he wants to crack jokes, but when he gets on the court, you know he can turn that button on, and it's crazy to watch. The mental aspect is different, LeBron runs all the plays, he acts like the coach. Kobe is more like, 'Give me the ball and I'll run it.' I think those are the two differences.”
