During his tenure with the Orlando Magic from 2004 to 2012, Dwight Howard truly stood out as the star in the league, garnering numerous All-Star selections and earning widespread acclaim as the league’s top center. His remarkable stretch from 2009 to 2011 saw him capture three consecutive Defensive Player of the Year honors.
He was successful with the team, but Howard thought the Magic could have done a better job in bouncing back after the 2009 Finals when they lost to the Los Angeles Lakers . The star center wanted to get traded to the Brooklyn Nets, but Orlando sent him to the Lakers, where he would become a flop and a league’s laughing stock due to a back injury.
“When we went to the Finals the next year, they kinda broke up all the players. They all got traded, they brought Vince in and other pieces. I thought that was our year, that year, we went to the Finals, and I thought next year if we kept the same squad,” Dwight said on the OGs. “I went to Otis Smith, I was like, hey Otis, I know this is a tough thing, but I would like to be traded. Can you just do this privately? I don’t want what happened to LeBron, I don’t want that to happen to me.”