‘I Wanted To Find Him And Beat The H*ll Out Of Him.’: Dwight Howard Thought He Was Buying WNBA’s Atlanta Dream, Then His Agent Stole $7M and Was Arrested For Fraud
Howard isn’t lacking for money. According to Celebrity Net Worth, the 2020 NBA champ’s net worth stands at $140 million, with a major portion of this wealth coming from his NBA earnings. He made $245.1 million throughout his NBA career over 18 seasons.
In fact, he’s still doing things that rich celebrities with too much time on their hands do. He’s entering “Dancing With The Stars.” Might as well go full mode celebrity if the NBA won’t be calling.
Dwight Howard Swindled Out Of $7M and Ownership Of Atlanta Dream
Dwight Howard’s life off the court hasn’t been ideal, with dreams he had for WNBA ownership and his daughter’s legacy going up in smoke. Howard recently opened up about a betrayal that cost him $7 million and derailed his dream of owning a WNBA team.
During a recent episode of his podcast “Above the Rim With DH12,” the former NBA star revealed that his former agent had stolen millions, crushing his plan to purchase the Atlanta Dream.
He explained to his co-panelists, including former NBA player Joe Smith, “$7 million, it was a part of the agent. What was my mentality? My mental was I wanted to find him and beat the h*ll out of him. Like, I wanted to kill him. My plan that I had was, I was looking to buy the Atlanta Dream. The basketball team for women.”
Dwight Howard’s former agent once swindled him out of $7M. Howard thought he was buying into a new ownership team for WNBA’s Atlanta Dream and the agent took off with his money and was later arrested for fraud. (Photo: Getty Images)
Howard, whose two daughters were born in 2010, continued, “And so I was like, man, I wanna really do this cause I got two daughters. One day they’re gonna wanna play basketball. I can set it up to where they can play for the Atlanta Dream one day when they get older.”
“So we put this little group together, and at the time, the NBA — because I was still playing — said that I couldn’t own the team outright myself,” he described. “I was like, ‘OK, I can have a group and be the face of the team for now, and then I could be behind the scenes making all the decisions and stuff like that.”
Dwight Howard Thought He Had Closed A Deal To Buy The Atlanta Dream: “That One Hurt”
“I had talked to the GM, I had talked to the owners of the team,” Howard said. “I really thought this was going to be my team. So I gave the group the money, and the next thing I know, I didn’t hear from the people anymore. They started disappearing.”
Howard then describeD when he knew he’d been taken. “Then I looked online, and it was breaking news. They said that some other people had bought the Atlanta Dream. I had even called my mom before that and told her, ‘Mom, I’m going to send you a whole bunch of Dream stuff. We own the Dream!'” he said.
“I was happy because my mom had season tickets, and I was going to make sure she went to all the games,” he continued. “But they took the money, and I hardly ever heard from them again. The conversations with my agent became less and less.”
“He kept saying, ‘Man, they won’t call me back now. I can’t get in contact with them.’ I was like, ‘Man, you’re lying. What’s going on?'” the three-time Defensive Player of the Year recounted.
“I really trusted this agent because he was my agent, so he had a duty to tell the truth and be honest with me. But these agents, these lawyers, all these people — they are scheming, they be lying, and they all have the same motive: to take from you. So it’s like you really can’t trust anybody,” Howard complaine.
Howard says that he wanted to own the Atlanta Dream, because he had a long-term vision to have his daughters play together for the franchise one day.
He says he worked with a group of investors to make the purchase while he was still an NBA player. Howard couldn’t officially own a team during his playing career, so he decided to play a behind-the-scenes role. The deal was moving forward until his agent and other associates vanished with the money, and the Dream was sold to different buyers.
Dwight Howard’s Agent Charles Briscoe Arrested On Felony Fraud, Identity Theft Charges
In March 2023, Howard’s former agent, Charles Briscoe, was arrested on felony charges, including wire fraud and identity theft. Briscoe and his co-conspirators allegedly used the $7 million for personal purchases. In February he pleaded guilty to federal wire fraud conspiracy charges but avoided prison time.
Despite the setback, Dwight Howard hasn’t abandoned his entrepreneurial aspirations. In 2024, he became a part-owner of a Taiwanese basketball league and the Taiwan Mustangs team. This marked the first time in history that a player owned a stake in the league they were actively involved in.
Dwight Howard’s NBA Legacy Is Complicated
When it comes to NBA nightmare stories, Howard has a few of them, and he’s only 38 years old.
Being forced into retirement, left off the NBA’s Top 75 all-time list despite being a dominant center at his peak, even defeating LeBron James enroute to the 2008 NBA Finals. He’s also an NBA champion, earning that acclaim in a key backup role for LBJ’s bubble championship Lakers in 2020.
He’s had to go play for the Taipei Mustangs in Taiwan (The Asian Tournament), because no NBA team wants to sign him. The overall disrespect that many fans and media types have shown for his legacy on the court, which includes an unforgettable Slam Dunk contest, where he unveiled the Superman cape and made an enemy of Shaquille O’Neal forever, is sad, for lack of a better word.
Since his days as leader of a rising Orlando Magic’s team, somewhere along the line, the 6-foot-10, comical, child-like court destroyer developed a reputation as a negative locker room presence.
When Shaq’s jersey was retired in January of 2024, that was the last straw of disrespect he could handle. Howard flat-out said his jersey should have been the first because he played for the team much longer.
In a 2013 interview, he called his former Orlando Magic teammates a “team full of people no one wanted”
In that same season, Bleacher Report dropped some heat asserting that Howard was a terrible teammate and had “extinguished all bridges with the franchise where he spent his first eight NBA seasons”.
Things didn’t get much better or in LA, where he and Kobe Bryant couldn’t get on the same page.
Atlanta Dream Ownership Was Not In The Cards For Dwight Howard
There was also a firestorm of political and social unrest around the time Howard was trying to buy the Atlanta Dream as the walls closed in on former owner, wealthy Trump supporter and former U.S. Senator from Georgia, Kelly Loeffler.
Ultimately, the WNBA unanimously approved the sale of the Atlanta Dream to Larry Gottesdiener, chairman of real estate firm Northland. During a contentious time in America, Loeffler feuded with the WNBA and her own players over their support to fight social injustices. The investor group also included former NBA player Renee Montgomery and Suzanne Abair, president of Northland Investment Corp. in Massachusetts.
Loeffler made headlines in July 2020 after she opposed the team’s support of social justice for Black people following several high-profile killings involving police.
The Dream wore jerseys supporting the Black Lives Matter movement and remembering Breonna Taylor, who was killed by police in Louisville, Kentucky, last March. Loeffler wrote WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert to oppose the team’s support of the movement and to propose that players wear American flags on their jerseys instead.
In response, Dream players used their platform to support her Jan. 5 runoff opponent, now U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock. Players wore “Vote Warnock” shirts, which reportedly raised over $236,000 for his campaign.
On Jan. 19, reports surfaced that a sale of the Dream was finalized.
Dwight Howard Continues To Build Legacy
Maybe if Howard had the right people handling this situation, he could have secured ownership, or at least been a part of the ownership group. He definitely has the cash, and WNBA franchises don’t sell for more than $15M. The New York Liberty, owned by Brooklyn Nets owner Joe Tsai is only considered to be worth in the $10-14M range.
His quirky ways have not helped him create the legacy that he should have for his illustrious career. He’s one of the last truly dominant post players. An eight-time all-star and five-time all-NBA player, five-time NBA rebounding leader and three-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year.
“Be careful with what you’ve got,” because “nobody cares about you,” is the lesson Howard says he learned from that situation with his agent and that he preaches to his kids.
