Dwight Howard and James Harden were supposed to form one of the NBA's next great big man-guard combinations, but they never seemed to gel either on or off the court with the Houston Rockets.
"Before I got to Houston, I didn't know him as a person," said Howard. "What made me really interested in James Harden was the way he attacked the basket when he was at OKC. He was the glue of the team, attacking, making plays, dunking. I was thinking, 'Man, this guy could be special.' When I hit free agency, I watched YouTube tapes of James for hours. I looked at us as a mini Shaq and Kobe. I was thinking, 'Man, this could be a new life for both of us.' And we had some good stretches together. Made it to the Conference finals last season.''
Howard was asked to talk about what happened with their relationship.
"I don't know. ... I want to figure that out, too. I've been trying to wrap my mind around this season, what went wrong, and sometimes you can allow outside things to interrupt the circle. That probably happened with us.''