Lakers Champion Dwight Howard Made A Heartbreaking Kobe Bryant Statement

In an interview earlier this year, Howard made a heartfelt statement about Bryant (who passed away in 2020).

Howard (via 7PM in Brooklyn): "I literally watched Kobe growing up. Even though we played together and had all these disagreements or whatever people want to say. This still somebody that I looked at like, dang this Kobe Bryant, man I want to be like that one day... It just really hurt to see that I had a chance to play with this legend like Kobe Bryant one of the greatest... Our mentalities were: he want to win, I want to win, but the way that I'm going about it is totally different."

At the time, Bryant was still an All-Star caliber player (who averaged 27.3 points per contest).

However, the team was up-and-down during the regular season (and Bryant suffered a season-ending injury before the playoffs).

Howard went on to play for the Lakers two more times before the end of his 18-year NBA career.

He helped LeBron James and Anthony Davis win the 2020 NBA Championship over the Miami Heat.