Insider Thinks Anthony Davis Would Be Demolished By Another Hall Of Fame Lakers Big
Former three-time Los Angeles Lakers center Dwight Howard, now playing for the Taipei Leopards in Taiwan, burned plenty of bridges over the course of his 18-year NBA career.
The big man alienated coaches, teammates, and almost every franchise he played for, even while accruing enough on-court honors (eight All-Star appearances, eight All-NBA teams, five All-Defensive Team honors, three Defensive Player of the Year awards, one NBA Finals appearance as the best player on his team and one win with LA as a contributing role player) and achieving enough postseason success to guarantee himself a first-ballot Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame induction.
During a recent conversation with ex-NBAers Quentin Richardson and Darius Miles on their show Knuckleheads Podcast, Howard's former Orlando Magic coach Stan Van Gundy opined that not only did Howard deserve a spot in the league's recent "NBA 75" (a group of players the league named as its best-ever to commemorate its 75th anniversary last year), but he deserved it in spite of his own Los Angeles teammate, Anthony Davis. SVG's relationship with Howard famously did not survive their time together in Orlando.
"To me, the only guys you could even talk about in his league at that time [of Howard's peak, from roughly 2008-12] were LeBron and Kobe," Van Gundy opined. "I think Anthony Davis is great, but at the time they selected [the NBA's 75th anniversary team in 2022] I mean, it's not close."
"You cannot make a case that Anthony Davis had a better career than Dwight Howard, that's absolutely ridiculous."
I can't quite agree with this second sentiment. Davis, like Howard, did force his way off the team that drafted him with the No. 1 overall pick in such a way that he is currently persona non grata with their fanbase. But Davis wasn't subsequently passed around from team to team like a hot potato, all the while ostracizing seemingly most of his colleagues.
Davis, also an eight-time All-Star whose frequent injuries may preclude him from making another such team, was the second-best player on a title squad. Howard was the first-best on a runner-up (to the Lakers, of course, in 2009). Davis has the more versatile offensive game, while Howard deliberately kept his fairly limited.
There's a real case to be made for either play now, although I'd still give Howard the edge, one could legitimately make an argument either way.
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