Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is perhaps one of the top three or four centers to ever put on an NBA uniform. As a player, he earned six NBA titles, six MVP awards and was a 19-time All-Star. Needless to say, when Abdul-Jabbar talks, we probably should listen.
In opening up about fellow center Dwight Howard, who just finished his first (and potentially only season in Atlanta), Abdul-Jabbar didn’t necessarily have great things to say.
“Well, Dwight Howard didn’t want to do any work. Andrew Bynum did not want to do a lot of work, but Andrew was kind of getting the hang of it. I don’t think Andrew was that interested in playing basketball,” Kareem said, via Lakers Nation. “Dwight Howard, I’m not going to say anything about him because I really don’t understand what his thing was.”
A veteran of five championship teams with the Lakers, Kareem is like royalty in Southern California. On the other hand, Howard’s one-year tenure with the Lakers was an unmitigated disaster. He clashed big time with another all-time great in Kobe Bryant and moved on in free agency mere months after Los Angeles acquired him.
Kareem’s comments are sure to catch the eye of Lakers fans in California. They have been vocal about Howard’s lack of success with the team, letting him know just when since he departed for the Houston Rockets.
As Howard himself faces the specter of hitting free agency once again, he’s surely gaining a reputation for being a malcontent. Should his home-town Hawks team wash themselves of him after only one season, that would only be magnified further.