Dwight Howard
Dwight Howard is the only player in NBA history to win Defensive Player of the Year in three consecutive seasons (2009, 2010, 2011) and the only center of the post-Shaquille O’Neal era to lead his team to an NBA Finals as the single offensive and defensive centerpiece. He was the first pick of the 2004 draft straight out of Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy, an eight-time All-Star, a five-time All-NBA first-team selection, the 2008 NBA Slam Dunk Contest winner (in a Superman cape, which is still the most-watched dunk contest moment of the 2000s), the 2020 NBA champion as a backup center on the Los Angeles Lakers, an import MVP of the Taiwanese T1 League in 2023, and a 2025 Hall of Fame inductee alongside the 2008 Redeem Team. His career spans eighteen active NBA seasons across nine franchise transactions, a Taiwan season at age 37, and what has become, in retrospect, the most schematically redefined center career of the 2000s-2020s arc.
Atlanta, Southwest Atlanta Christian, and the high-school decision
He was born December 8, 1985 in Atlanta, Georgia. His father, Dwight Howard Sr., was a Georgia State Trooper and later the athletic director of Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy, a small private Christian school in southwest Atlanta with an enrollment of about 300 students. His mother, Sheryl Howard, played on the first women’s basketball team at Morris Brown College. He attended Southwest Atlanta Christian from kindergarten through twelfth grade. He was 6’9” in eighth grade. By his sophomore year at SACA, he was 6’11”. His senior year he averaged 25 points, 18 rebounds, and 8.1 blocks a game. He was the Naismith Prep Player of the Year in 2004 and co-MVP of the McDonald’s All-American Game.
The decision to bypass college was, by his own later account, a direct consequence of Kevin Garnett’s 1995 high-school-to-NBA path (which is detailed in our Kevin Garnett biography, forthcoming). Howard and his father deliberated the decision for two months. Every major Division I program was recruiting (North Carolina, Duke, Louisville, Kentucky); none landed the commitment. On April 28, 2004, Howard declared for the NBA Draft. On June 24, 2004, the Orlando Magic drafted him first overall. He was the first high-school center drafted with the first overall pick since Moses Malone in 1974 (and Malone had been drafted into the ABA).
Orlando Magic (2004–2012)
He started all 82 games his rookie year, the first high-school center to do so, and averaged 12.0 points and 10.0 rebounds. On November 15, 2005, against the Toronto Raptors, he posted 21 points and 20 rebounds. He was 19 years and 342 days old, the youngest player in league history ever to produce a 20-20 game. He made his first All-Star team in his third year.
The 2007-08 season was the statistical breakout: 20.7 points, 14.2 rebounds, 2.1 blocks, All-NBA first team, and the 2008 NBA Slam Dunk Contest title (wearing a Superman cape handed to him by Magic Johnson, dunking the ball from just outside the painted area, a dunk that has since been copied by every dunk contest participant through the 2020s). In 2008-09 he averaged 20.6 points and 13.8 rebounds, led the league in rebounds and blocks, and was named Defensive Player of the Year at 23, the youngest ever to win the award. He led Orlando past Philadelphia, Boston, and Cleveland to the 2009 NBA Finals, where Kobe Bryant’s Lakers beat them 4-1. In Game 4 of that Finals, Howard posted 16 points, 21 rebounds, and 9 blocks. The Finals is the only one of his career as a primary option.
He won Defensive Player of the Year again in 2009-10 and 2010-11. He is the only player in NBA history to win the award in three consecutive seasons; Ben Wallace had won four total but they came in a 2002-04 window interrupted. The 2010-11 Magic won 52 games and lost in the first round to Atlanta. By the summer of 2011 Howard had, in consultation with his agent Dan Fegan and his management team, privately begun signaling interest in a trade.
The Dwightmare (2011–2012)
The period between December 2011 and August 2012 is, in NBA transaction lore, the single worst trade saga of the post-merger era. It is the reason most NBA front offices now structure max-contract negotiations differently than they did before 2012. The facts, reconstructed by Adrian Wojnarowski in a 2012 Yahoo Sports investigation, went approximately like this: Howard informed the Magic in December 2011 he wanted to be traded. He listed three preferred destinations: Brooklyn, Dallas, and the Los Angeles Lakers. He then, in March 2012, publicly waived his opt-out clause to return to Orlando for the following season, which appeared to end the trade conversation. Four months later he reopened the trade request. General manager Otis Smith resigned. Interim general manager Rob Hennigan was hired. On January 12, 2012 (in the middle of the negotiations) Howard attempted 39 free throws in a single game against Golden State, an NBA record that still stands. He made 21 of them and finished with 45 points and 23 rebounds.
On August 10, 2012, Orlando finally traded Howard to the Los Angeles Lakers in a four-team deal that also involved Philadelphia, Denver, and Orlando itself. Andrew Bynum went to Philadelphia. Andre Iguodala went to Denver. Nikola Vučević, Aaron Afflalo, Al Harrington, and a package of first-round picks went to Orlando. The trade negotiations had gone on for nine months. NBA commissioner David Stern, watching from the league office, publicly called the saga “the slowest and most exhausting trade process in my tenure.” The English-language shorthand that eventually settled on the period was “The Dwightmare,” first coined in a Grantland article by Bill Simmons in March 2012.
The Los Angeles Lakers (2012–2013)
The first Lakers stint lasted one season. Howard, recovering from April 2012 back surgery, played 76 games and averaged 17.1 points and 12.3 rebounds on .578 shooting. The team paired him with Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, and Steve Nash, which was, on paper, the most talented roster since the 2004 Lakers (see our Shaquille O’Neal biography for the 2003-04 Karl Malone-Payton-Kobe-Shaq parallel). The reality was less than the paper version. Kobe was approaching the end of his prime. Nash was dealing with chronic back problems. Howard shot 49.2% from the free-throw line, which Kobe famously called “the most annoying thing that ever happened to a Lakers team.” The Lakers went 45-37 and were swept in the first round by the San Antonio Spurs. Howard signed with the Houston Rockets as a free agent that July for $88 million over four years.
Houston Rockets (2013–2016)
Houston had built a roster around James Harden after the 2012 Oklahoma City trade (detailed on our James Harden biography). The pairing of Howard and Harden was, on paper, the ultimate pick-and-roll duo of the decade. In practice, Howard struggled with chronic knee inflammation, played only 41 games in 2014-15, and reported to Harden and coach Kevin McHale that he felt marginalized within the offense. The 2014-15 Rockets reached the Western Conference Finals and lost to Golden State in five. It was the deepest playoff run of Howard’s career since 2009. The rest of Houston was disappointing. In 2015-16 Howard averaged 13.7 and 11.8 but the relationship with Harden was publicly strained. He declined his player option in June 2016 and signed with Atlanta.
Atlanta, Charlotte, Washington, and the second Lakers return (2016–2019)
The Atlanta Hawks signed him to a three-year, $70 million deal in July 2016, which Hawks GM Wes Wilcox later called “a sentimental mistake.” Howard, at 30, averaged 13.5 and 12.7 for a 43-win team. He clashed with head coach Mike Budenholzer, was traded to Charlotte in June 2017 (for Miles Plumlee, Marco Belinelli, and a 2017 second-round pick), had his single best post-Magic season for the Hornets at 16.6 and 12.5 (including a 32-point, 30-rebound game against Brooklyn on March 21, 2018, the first 30-30 game in Hornets franchise history), was traded to Brooklyn in July 2018, was immediately waived, signed with Washington, played nine games, had spinal surgery, and was out of the league for most of 2018-19.
The Los Angeles Lakers signed him for the veteran minimum in August 2019. He played 69 games as a backup center next to Anthony Davis and LeBron James. In the 2020 Orlando Bubble, the Lakers went 16-5 in the playoffs. Howard played 23 minutes a night, averaged 4.1 points and 4.5 rebounds, and was the physical anchor for the Lakers’ defensive plan against the Miami Heat’s Bam Adebayo in the Finals. The Lakers won the championship. It was, at 34, Howard’s first and only ring. He has said in every interview since that the 2020 title was “the thing I was missing the whole career.”
Philadelphia and the third Lakers stint (2020–2022)
He signed with Philadelphia for 2020-21 as a free agent, backing up Joel Embiid on a 49-win Eastern Conference team that reached the second round. In August 2021 he returned to the Lakers for a third stint, which was as a minutes-maintenance backup across 60 games on a team that missed the playoffs entirely. It was the lowest-impact season of his career. The Lakers released him after the 2021-22 season. He was 36.
Taiwan and the end of the NBA career (2022)
He did not secure an NBA contract for the 2022-23 season. On November 7, 2022, he signed with the Taoyuan Leopards of Taiwan’s T1 League. In his debut he scored 38 points, grabbed 25 rebounds, dished 9 assists, and blocked 4 shots. He averaged 23 and 11 for the season. He was named T1 League Import MVP and was the T1 All-Star Game MVP. He returned to the U.S. in April 2023 for a promotional tour. He spent 2023-24 and 2024-25 attempting comebacks with non-NBA exhibition teams and failed to secure a roster spot.
On March 12, 2026, Howard formally announced his retirement from all professional basketball.
Hall of Fame, jersey retirements, and legacy
He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on August 9, 2025 as part of the 2025 class that also included Carmelo Anthony (see our Carmelo Anthony biography). He was also inducted that same weekend as a member of the 2008 Redeem Team, alongside Kobe Bryant (posthumously), LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Kevin Durant, and others. It was his second Hall of Fame plaque in one weekend. He is one of only four players (alongside Charles Barkley, Michael Jordan, and Scottie Pippen) to receive both individual induction and Dream Team / Redeem Team induction in the same calendar year.
The Orlando Magic have not yet retired his #12 but have publicly stated they intend to within two years. The Magic Heritage Collection already features him prominently.
Legacy
The basketball argument about Howard is narrower than it is for the ring-less Tier 1B peers. He won a championship. He won a Defensive Player of the Year three-peat. He made a Finals as the best player on his team. What he did not do was build a second act; his career after 2012, across seven team transitions, was the cautionary study in how to sign an aging center who can no longer anchor a defense at the elite level. The Athletic’s 2022 NBA 75 ranking placed him 23rd, which is the aggressively-defended assessment that puts him ahead of Gary Payton, Patrick Ewing, and Robert Parish and below Kevin Garnett and Bob Pettit. On any reasonable career-peak measurement (2008-2011), he was a top-three player in the NBA for three consecutive seasons. The 2009 Finals is the hinge; had the 2008-09 Magic had any reasonable perimeter-creator other than Jameer Nelson (who tore his shoulder labrum in February 2009 and missed the first three rounds of the playoffs), the 2009 Finals result might have been different. The cultural legacy includes the Superman dunk, the three-peat of DPOY, and the Dwightmare, which is now taught in basketball front-office programs as a case study in how a superstar exit should not be handled.
Gear
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Sources
Basketball-Reference is the primary career statistical source. The Southwest Atlanta Christian childhood detail and the family context are documented in Chris Ballard’s November 2008 Sports Illustrated feature. The 2012 Dwightmare trade reconstruction is from Adrian Wojnarowski’s 2012 Yahoo Sports investigation. The 2020 championship role is from Dave McMenamin’s ESPN coverage of the bubble playoffs. The 2025 Hall of Fame induction detail is from the Naismith Memorial ceremony broadcast archive. The 2023 Taiwan T1 League numbers are from the T1 League official statistics archive.
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Sources
- Basketball-Reference: Dwight Howard
- Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame: Dwight Howard
- Sports Illustrated: "Superman in Orlando" (Chris Ballard, November 2008)
- Yahoo Sports: "The Dwightmare, A Reconstruction of the 2012 Trade Negotiations" (Adrian Wojnarowski, 2012)
- ESPN: "Dwight Howard wins 2020 NBA championship" (Dave McMenamin, October 2020)