Dwight Howard put it all out there on his recent appearance on “The Gauds Show” and while most of the media focus was on his beef with Shaq that’s going on two decades, his comments about the backlash he received for a #freepalestine tweet when he was playing for the Houston Rockets is a telling description of how the NBA proclaims to be a player’s league, but the participants are always under the political and mental constraints of what the league’s hierarchy deems as acceptable and unacceptable speech.
“When you’re in the NBA there’s a lot of things that you want to say and could say but you know if you say it there’s going to be repercussions and you can get in a lot of trouble,” Howard said, recalling an example of how he got himself in hot water thinking he was doing the right thing.
Dwight Howard Got A Call From NBA Commissioner About Pro-Palestine Tweet
Back in 2014 when Howard played on the Houston Rockets, he says he tweeted #freepalestine, and “I dang near got kicked out the league for it and I was trying to figure out why.”
Howard removed the tweet after it started a war of words among his 15 million followers, with Howard clarifying that “Previous tweet was a mistake. I have never commented on international politics and never will.”
Prior to the tweet, Howard didn’t know of the conflicts involving Palestinians and Israel and probably didn’t know of America’s involvement or stance on it, until he had a conversation with some Palestinian fans. His own teammate, Israeli basketball star Omri Casspi, even came at Howard with his own X comment shortly after Howard’s hashtag tweet.
“600 misses been fired from GAZA by Hamas in the last 4 days. NUMBERS DON”T LIE. STOP LYING,” Casspi tweeted to his 50K followers at the time.
Dwight definitely wasn’t trying to get caught up in the drama. He said he went to the movies one day in Houston and met a group who wanted to take pictures and watch movies with Howard and his friends.
“I was like cool.” said Howard, who played in Houston from the 2013-14 season to the 2015-16 season. “When I was in Houston and Orlando and alot of cities I played in I would take fans to movies and big events at David Bustas and stuff like that. So we go to the movies and after the movies I’m taking pictures with all of the fans and stuff like that and they asked me to just bring some awareness to what’s going on with their country.
“So, me having a big heart, I’m like, you know what, I want people to know the struggles y’all are having because I don’t think it’s wrong,” he explained.
“So I tweet ‘free Palestine.’ Less than 10 minutes after I tweet that I get a call from the commissioner of the NBA, agents, people working with my foundation at the time in Texas telling me, ‘You got to erase this tweet. You gotta take it down,’” Howard recalls.
Howard says he was wondering, “what did I do that’s so bad.”
“Can somebody explain? But it was because I went against the grain and said something that people didn’t like … they didn’t like. Now I have to stand on what I believe and how I feel and not go back on it.
Talking Too Much About The Wrongs Things Can Get You Bounced From NBA
“When you’re in the league you be in that place where ‘If I say too much or say something I may not get a job no more.’ I gotta hold my tongue, and that’s so hard to do when we are faced with so many situations … have things going on that may be outside the court. You may have situations with your team going on that you can’t really speak on,” Howard added.
”So I just got to a place where I’m not going to say nothing or do nothing and that became a problem too because other people are speaking from other outlets putting stuff in my mouth or lying,” he concluded.
It seems that Howard has decided not to hold his tongue anymore Now that he says he’s found the perfect soulmate in fiancée, rapper Amy Luciani, Howard says he has no fears, is at peace and will continue to speak his mind, especially now that he’s not in the league and since his departure it hasn’t shown his illustrious career much respect.
He was snubbed from the Top 75 team and Shaq got his jersey retired in Orlando while Howard is still waiting. As far as politics and the NBA go, it’s always cool until it’s a problem. Ask Daryl Morey, Enes Kanter — now known as Enes Freedom — LeBron James, or the artist formerly known as Chris Jackson (Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf).
