HOUSTON – As the Rockets offseason search for a head coach continues, Dwight Howard continues to talk more about why his past season did not go well in his mind.
In a wide-ranging Q & A with ESPN, Howard said during the season, he felt like his role was being reduced so he went to Rockets general manager Daryl Morey to discuss the situation and was essentially told they didn't want him more involved.
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Howard told ESPN he spoke to Morey and said,
'I want to be more involved.' Daryl said, 'No, we don't want you to be.' My response was, 'Why not? Why am I here?' It was shocking to me that it came from him instead of our coach. So I said to him, 'No disrespect to what you do, but you've never played the game. I've been in this game a long time. I know what it takes to be effective.'''
Subsequently in a radio interview on FOX, teammate Jason Terry essentially confirmed that conversation was well known within the team.
"It was something that was openly spoken about throughout the season. That was one of the things that was hurtful to him and he couldn't understand it," Terry said in the interview.
But I said 'Dwight, sometime in your career, you are going to have to decide do you want to become a champion? If becoming a champion means set more screens roll harder to the basket, run the floor more, that's what you have to do.
"You can't worry about if I'm getting touches in the post. It doesn't matter. It's whatever your team needs you to do on that particular night to win.
Terry added, "Morey didn't say we're not going to give you the ball, we're just not going to give it to you in the post, because that's not our style of play."
"It him (Dwight) awhile to kind of understand but as the playoffs came, he took it on the chin and he started to become the force and the player they wanted him to be. He was a walking double-double. I thought that was big of him and it showed a lot of maturity."
Howard has the option to opt-out of the final season of his contract that is scheduled to pay him just over $23 million. At age 32, he could be looking for a final big pay-day in free agency.