Dwight Howard's future with the Orlando Magic and long dragged out exit dominated the NBA landscape in 2012 and he feels like the period has continued to plague his career five years later.  Lee Jenkins writes that "Howard can't stop reliving" some of the details of his Dwightmare period.

“In a lot of ways, I feel like I never recovered,” said Howard.

Howard played through a torn labrum with the Los Angeles Lakers in an effort to regain his reputation around the NBA.

“I lost confidence in who I am as a player,” he recalls. “I’d hear people say, ‘You should play more like Shaq,’ so I tried to bully guys. But that didn’t work because I’m not as big as Shaq. Then I’d hear people say, ‘You smile too much, you should be more like Kobe,’ so I tried to put on a mean face and play mad. But I wound up getting all these stupid techs and flagrant fouls.”