CHICAGO — There were times not too long ago, as the NBA left him for dead, as injuries gnawed at his body, and as his spirit and reputation suffered with it, when Dwight Howard, in his own words, “wanted to shy away from people.”
And so there were times, not too long before the renaissance, when Dwight Howard was no longer himself. As a basketball player and more importantly as a person. He was no longer the All-Star with the All-Star personality, nor the entertainer. He was no longer the crowd-pleaser who fed off the joy he gave others.