He's the fourth youngest player to record 15,000 points and 10,000 rebounds, but Dwight Howard may be wearing out his welcome on his third NBA team.
Can you say T.O. of the hardwood?
Dwight Howard Could Be Out Of NBA If He Doesn't Wise Up
As talented as Howard is, he is becoming the Terrell Owens of the NBA -- his behavior is overshadowing his performance.
The Rockets are contacting teams to explore trade possibilities for the eight-time All-Star, according to Yahoo Sports.
Dwight Howard Accused Of Being Jealous Of James Harden
Howard joined the Rockets in the summer of 2013 and helped James Harden build the franchise to the point of reaching the Western Conference finals last season. But the team is struggling in 2015-16 with a 27-28 record, leading Houston interim coach J.B. Bickerstaff to declare the team "broken," according to ESPN.
"We're broken," Bickerstaff said. "It's that simple. We're a broken team, and we all need to use this break to figure out how we're going to impact change. If we don't want to impact change, then we need to be made aware of that, too, and we'll go in a different direction.
"We can't continue to go out and play this way. It's easy to see it's a fragmented bunch. You can't win that way."
News of the Rockets shopping their center comes hours after a lengthy meeting he and James Harden had with Bickerstaff and general manager Daryl Morey, as reported by ESPN.
"When asked what about the team is broken, Howard said, 'I'm not going to talk about what's broken. It's all we do is we talk about the issues that we have. Nobody is being positive.'"
A recent ESPN ranking of all-time NBA centers has Howard listed as 17th. He guided the Magic to the 2009 NBA Finals, where they lost to the Lakers in five games. Howard then came to Los Angeles for a disastrous season in 2012-13 before signing with the Rockets.
He was blamed in Orlando for contributing to the firing of then-coach Stan Van Gundy. Kobe Bryant said having to deal with Howard made him miss having Shaquille O'Neal as a teammate. And now the Rockets are looking to move him.
Sounds similar to Owens, who recently was snubbed for the Pro Football Hall of Fame despite his gaudy statistics.
"Terrell Owens somehow didn't make it into the Hall of Fame despite being second all-time in career receiving yards (15,934), third all-time in career receiving touchdowns (153) and sixth all-time in career receptions (1,078)," Sporting News reported.
The reason T.O. didn't make it?
"The bottom line on T.O. is he was so disruptive," Hall of Fame voter and New York Daily News reporter Gary Myers told the Dan Patrick Show via USA Today Sports' For the Win. "With (Lawrence Taylor), you don't count the off-the-field stuff. That's a mandate from the Hall of Fame -- it's only what you've done on the field. The argument that was made in the room, and I agreed with this, is what T.O. did in the locker room is ... is an extension of that."
Owens only once had fewer than 60 receptions after his rookie season and that came during an injury-plagued 2005 with the Eagles in which he still managed 47 receptions in seven games.
T.O. played with five teams and wanted to keep playing after a 72-catch season with the Bengals in 2010 but was no longer wanted.
Much like Howard.
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Congrats @DwightHoward on 15,001 career points. 4th youngest player to reach 15,000 pts & 10,000 rebounds in NBA history. #NBAVote
— Houston Rockets (@HoustonRockets) December 27, 2015
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