Dwight Howard was a key player for the Los Angeles Lakers during their 2019-20 title run. He was no longer the star he once was in his first stint with LA during the Kobe Bryant era. That spell did not exactly end well for Howard, but he was able to eventually redeem himself as he helped the Lakers lift championship No. 16 in 2020.

In a recent interview with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson on the All the Smoke podcast, Howard made a never-before-heard revelation about how his reunion with the Lakers came to be. Apparently, team executive Kurt Rambis dropped a major truth bomb to his face right before Howard signed with the Lakers (via allthesmoke on Instagram):

“Kurt Rambis said to me, ‘You're not Dwight Howard anymore,'” he said.

“It really hit me like damn… I just gotta shut my mouth and do what I'm asked to do. That was real hard.”

 

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Rambis set the record straight even before they brought Howard back to LA. The high-ranking team executive let Dwight know exactly what they expected from him coming in, and true enough, Howard heard the message loud and clear.

After winning his first career championship with the Lakers that season, Dwight Howard left LA to join the Philadelphia 76ers. He returned for a third stint last season, but he is now out of contract and is currently testing out the waters of free agency. Whether or not the Lakers re-sign him for another year remains to be seen at this point.