Dwight Howard wants to finish his career with the Charlotte Hornets
It sounds like Dwight Howard wants to spend the rest of his career in the Queen City with the Charlotte Hornets.
In a recent interview with Nick Carboni of WCNC, Dwight Howard talked about a number of topics including the “Dwightmare” era, being traded to the Charlotte Hornets, embracing the Queen City and wanting to finish his career with the team. The eight-time all-star is having a bounce-back year under Steve Clifford and seems to be enjoying his first season in Charlotte.
Dwight spoke highly of the city and the organization saying that “I would love to finish my career here. This has been a great city for me. Uptown Charlotte is not super big, but it’s cozy enough for me, I love it. The fans here are amazing. I love wearing purple and teal. This is a wonderful place.”
Howard has been in the league for 14 seasons and has played for the Orlando Magic, the Los Angeles Lakers, the Houston Rockets and the Atlanta Hawks before joining the Hornets this season. At 32-years old, he has entered the later stages of his career. It’s unclear how long Dwight will stay in the NBA but he recently said that he wants to play 20 seasons.
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After a couple down seasons in Houston and Atlanta, Dwight’s game has been revitalized with Charlotte. He is averaging 15.9 points per game, 12.4 rebounds and 1.7 blocks. The last time he played this well was during the 2013-14 season with the Rockets when he was last named to an All-Star team.
If Howard isn’t traded this summer or next season, his contract will be up after the 2018-19 campaign. That is when the Hornets will have to decide whether or not to bring him back and if they do, will Dwight want to re-sign at a reasonable price or will he want to get the biggest payday possible and test the open market?
The three-time Defensive Player of the Year added that joining Charlotte gave him “overwhelming confidence” and that “This is the best I’ve felt in the last three or four years as far as physically and mentally I’m in an amazing place.” The Queen City and the Hornets have obviously done Howard well.
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It will be interesting to see what happens once Dwight’s contract runs out after next season but if he continues to perform at the level that he has so far this year, there’s no doubt that plenty of teams will be after the future first-ballot Hall of Famer. He’s been the Charlotte Hornets’ second-best player behind on Kemba Walker this season and if he wants to stay, I’m sure the organization will want to work something out.