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When Dwight Howard first entered the league, he was a young center following in the footsteps of Shaquille O'Neal. During his rookie season, he had a big "welcome to the league" moment with one of the game's greatest.
In terms of competitve nature, Kobe Bryant is in a class of his own. Even down the stretch of his career, he still did everything he could to win. At his peak, he was a ruthless assassin with the ball in his hands. This is something Dwight Howard had to learn the hard way.
During the 2004 season, Howard was facing off against Kobe and the LA Lakers for the first time. Late in the third quarter, the Hall of Fame guard found himself with a clear path to the rim. Howard rotated late and tried to cut him off, but was unsuccessful. The end result was being on the receiving end of a poster dunk.
Howard went on to win Defensive Player of the Year three times, but he was no match for Kobe in this encounter.
Dwight Howard and Kobe Bryant went on to have a rocky relationship
Following this first encounter, things never really got better between Kobe Byrant and Dwight Howard. When they ended up sharing the floor together, their relationship was far from perfect.
Similar to Shaquille O'Neal, Howard departed for the LA Lakers after spending eight years with the Orlando Magic. However, his tenure went much different than the Hall of Fame big man.
As everyone knows, Kobe is a competitive player who expects the most out of those around him. Howard, on the other hand, was known to be more of a jester and easy going. This led to the two constantly butting heads and having issues off the court.
In the end, Howard only ended up playing one season in LA. He quickly departed to join forces with a young James Harden on the Houston Rockets. Once he was gone, he opened up on the struggles he had being Kobe's teammate.
"I know that I approached that season wanting to be the best version of myself and also the man," Howard said. "You know, I'm young, I just felt like that at the time. It was really hard for me and Kobe to really communicate. I think we were just at two different mental stages."
