For Dwight Howard, it just isn’t a big deal.
A much-anticipated matchup against a former team can get the best of a player. But only if he lets it, Howard said.
The issue has resurfaced for the veteran center as his new team, the Hawks, host his most recent team, the Rockets, Saturday night at Philips Arena. It’s an early-season meeting against the team Howard left after three seasons when he declined to exercise is player option this summer. Instead, he signed a three-year, $70.5 million free-agent contract with his hometown Hawks.
“Once I left the Magic and I had to go back and play there, it was just me out there playing,” Howard said Friday before the Hawks played at the Wizards. “Obviously, a lot of people make big deals out of it. But this is our lives. We have to decide what we want and what we think is best for us. We can’t concern ourselves with the petty stuff like who we are playing and what happened. You can’t focus on that. It just brings the energy down. Basically, you are allowing the other team to beat you mentally.”
Some look at Howard’s career with the Rockets as tenuous. Certainly, the pairing with James Harden didn’t work as the organization had hoped. It wasn’t exactly a failure. The Rockets made the playoffs all three seasons, including a trip to the Western Conference finals in 2014-15. There were first-round playoff exits the other two seasons. Last season, the Rockets went 41-41, with a head coach fired midway through the campaign.
There were reports of friction between Howard and Harden, with their on-court chemistry never reaching the potential many envisioned. Recently reports surfaced that Rockets management wanted to play Clint Capela over Howard last season.
Harden recently downplayed the notion that there were issues between the players.
“I know what the truth is, it’s no beef,” Harden told ESPN recently. “We never got into a heated argument. It just didn’t work out.”
Howard has moved on. He enters his 13th NBA season, and this will be the fourth time he has faced a former team after stints with the Magic, Lakers and Rockets before joining the Hawks.
“Just go out there and play basketball,” Howard said of his mindset. “Try not to put too much thought into who I’m playing but rather what my task is every night. When you go out there and have the mentality that you have to show this team who I am, that’s when you mess up. Just go out there and play your game. Don’t focus on anything negative, stay positive, stay locked in and the game will tend to go your way.”
Howard will face two former teams in four days. He had 31 points and 11 rebounds in a 123-116 loss to the Lakers on Wednesday.
Howard has fared very well in first games against former teams. In his first game with the Lakers against the Magic, he had 21 points and 15 rebounds in 39 minutes of a 113-103 loss on Dec. 2, 2012 in Los Angeles. Then with the Rockets, he had 15 points and 14 rebounds in 37 minutes of a 99-98 loss to the Lakers on Nov. 7, 2013 in Houston.
The Hawks travel to Houston for a game Feb. 2, 2017, where Howard will have another homecoming of sorts.
“My only focus is our team,” Howard said.
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