Rapper and BIG3 founder Ice Cube asks Los Angeles Lakers fans to give Dwight Howard a second chance.
Howard signed a one-year, non-guaranteed deal with the Lakers. He will be JaVale McGee's backup at center.
The former superstar left Los Angeles on bad terms with the fan base back in 2013. However, no one was more critical of Howard when he left LA than Ice Cube, who called him “Dwight Coward.”
“I think Los Angeles should give Dwight a clean slate and let his game speak for itself,” Cube said, via Arash Markazi of the Los Angeles Times. “If he can help, it’ll show and if he can’t, it’ll show. I would love for him to concentrate on what he does best — rebound, defense, blocked shots and lob dunks. If he can do that, Dwight will be all right. I’m not even going to think about the first go around. That’s in the past.”
Dwight Howard is on a very short leash with the Purple and Gold, so he needs to prove himself despite his minimal role on the Lakers.
Howard averaged 17.1 points and 12.4 rebounds in 76 regular season games for the Lakers in 2012-13, all while shooting 57.8 percent from the field. After LA got swept by the San Antonio Spurs in the first round of the 2013 playoffs, Howard left the team and signed with the Houston Rockets that summer.
Last season with the Washington Wizards, Howard played in just nine games. He underwent a lumbar microdiscectomy in November. Howard put up 12.8 points and 9.2 rebounds with Washington.