Dwight Howard addresses Van Gundy drama
Dwight Howard sat down with ESPN's Hannah Storm in an attempt to change the public perception of him after a season which he's damaged his brand severely. The interview will be aired on May 25th on ESPN2 on a special called Face to Face but The Real NBA has a transcript of part of the interview below.
Storm: Tell me about that day when Stan Van Gundy told the media that you had gone to upper management and asked for him to get fired — from the moment you walked into the room unaware of what had taken place.
Howard: Totally unaware; you know, I didn’t know what was going on. To be honest, the day before I saw some stuff come out where it was said, from sources, that I demanded that Stan get out of there. And I was like, ‘That’s crazy’. I never even said anything about it.
Storm: So you never asked for him to be fired?
Howard: No, no. So when it was said, I was just like, in shock, I was in shock.
Storm: How does something like that happen? If you never made the request, then who told him that the request had been made?
Howard: I have no idea. I have no idea. You know, but . . .
Storm: Did that bother you?
Howard: Did that bother me? You know, it did, it did. I got a lot of negative press out of the whole situation. You know, ‘Coach killer, this or that.’ And it was just bizarre how the whole thing happened. You know, but, I haven’t said anything this season — to anybody in management about, you know, you need to do this with Stan, or vice versa; they never said we’ll do this for you.
Storm: Have you said it in past seasons?
Howard: Have I said it before? Ahh . . . Being upset, yea, I’ve said it, you know, but I’ve always come back and said I’ll do a better job, I’ll take more of a hit, I’ll lead better, I’ll do everything I can to get better.
Storm: What is it about the dynamic that is difficult?
Howard: I think me and Stan, we both have just strong, strong personalities. And at the end of the day we both want the same thing; we’ve sat in the office, we’ve had talks, and our goal is to win a championship.
Storm: What did he say to you?
Howard: Um, well he felt like what he did was out of line. And like I told him, after everything that went down, whatever was said was said. That’s over and done with; from this day forward let’s try to be on the same page so we can lead our team.
Storm: If you could look back over the last year and do anything differently, would you?
Howard: The only thing I could probably say that I could have done better is probably just keep my mouth shut more. 
