{"id":102695,"date":"2024-10-23T15:13:32","date_gmt":"2024-10-23T19:13:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=102695"},"modified":"2024-10-23T15:13:32","modified_gmt":"2024-10-23T19:13:32","slug":"2020-los-angeles-lakers-champion-dwight-howard-would-definitely-re-sign-with-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/10\/23\/2020-los-angeles-lakers-champion-dwight-howard-would-definitely-re-sign-with-team\/","title":{"rendered":"2020 Lakers Champion &#8216;Would Definitely&#8217; Re-Sign With Team"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/10\/21\/impactful-lakers-forward-progressing-toward-a-return\/\" target=\"_self\">Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> head into the 2024-25 season as one of the most interesting teams in the NBA. Last night, they defeated the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/10\/22\/timberwolves-needed-multi-year-commitment-to-rudy-gobert\/\" target=\"_self\">Minnesota Timberwolves<\/a>, one of the top teams in the West, by a score of 110-103. The game featured first-time head coach <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/r\/redicjj01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-10-23_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">JJ Redick<\/a> leading the way. Additionally, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jamesle01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-10-23_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">LeBron James<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jamesbr02.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-10-23_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bronny James<\/a> officially became the first-ever father-son teammate duo in league history last night. After getting eliminated in the first round last season, the Lakers aim to make it back to playoffs once again. Furthermore, still led by James and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/davisan02.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-10-23_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Anthony Davis<\/a>, the Lakers are fighting for their 18th championship in franchise history, just four years after winning their last one. Now, right as the season gets underway, a member of that Lakers squad is making it clear that he is open to returning to the team. That player? Potential Hall of Famer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/howardw01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-10-23_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dwight Howard<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Howard played an important role in the Lakers&#8217; championship run in 2020. For the first time in his career to that point, he was relegated to a bench role. Still, he made it work and finished ninth in Sixth Man of the Year voting that season. In a recent interview for <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2024\/10\/23\/entertainment\/dwight-howard-on-lakers-future-after-bronny-james-debut\/?utm_campaign=nypost&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the New York Post<\/a>, the 38-year-old has revealed that he would still entertain a Lakers reunion.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cI would definitely go back to the Lakers,\u201d Howard exclusively told the Post on Tuesday before his \u201cDancing With the Stars\u201d partner Daniella Karagach quipped, \u201cI\u2019m getting him in shape.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h2>Dwight Howard Is Open to Los Angeles Lakers Reunion<\/h2>\n<h3>Fourth Time Is the Charm for Dwight Howard and the Lakers<\/h3>\n<p>Hypothetically, if Howard were to return to Los Angeles, it would mark his fourth stint with the team. Howard infamously played for the Lakers during the 2012-13 season, his first time playing for a non-<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/10\/09\/2024-25-nba-betting-preview-orlando-magic-win-total-odds\/\" target=\"_self\">Orlando Magic<\/a> squad. Additionally, in 2021-22, the big man returned for the third time and played 60 games. Up to this point, this was the last time Howard played in an NBA game.<\/p>\n<p>The Atlanta native has been open about his desire to return to the league for a long time. In May, he made it clear he wanted &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/05\/03\/former-los-angeles-lakers-champion-hopeful-for-reunion-dwight-howard\/\" target=\"_self\">one more chance<\/a>&#8221; to return to the NBA. Furthermore, last December, on his 38th birthday, Howard made it clear he is &#8220;not retiring&#8221; just yet. Additionally, he said he wants to play in the In-Season Tournament, now known as the NBA Cup.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">I turned 38 today \ud83c\udf88 and I thought about it lol\u2026 I\u2019m not retiring before I have the chance to say I played in a In season tournament game lol<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Dwight Howard (@DwightHoward) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DwightHoward\/status\/1733072034203045980?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">December 8, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>The Last Word<\/h3>\n<p>It remains unlikely that Howard will ever return to the league again. Once a dominant player in his prime, he is far from that same player today. He does have size and championship experience. However, it has been roughly seven years since the last time he played a consistent, starting role for an NBA team. Howard could probably still provide some useful minutes off the bench if needed. However, at this point in time, it is difficult to imagine he can still contribute to a championship-contending team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Los Angeles Lakers head into the 2024-25 season as one of the most interesting teams in the NBA. Last night, they defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves, one of the top teams in the West, by a score of 110-103. The game featured first-time head coach JJ Redick leading the way. Additionally, LeBron James and Bronny [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4631,"featured_media":100737,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,2,26,62,3],"tags":[205],"class_list":["post-102695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-featured","category-lakers","category-nba","category-news","tag-dwight-howard"],"modified_by":"Elie Deglaoui","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4631"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102695\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}