LOS ANGELES – Dwight Howard smiled broadly before the Philadelphia 76ers faced the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday night and took his 2020 championship ring with fellow ex-Laker Danny Green.
It wasn’t long before Howard’s expression turned from cheers to exasperation.
Howard, who returned to Staples Center, was ejected between the first and second fifteen minutes when referee Kane Fitzgerald made a technical foul on Howard for deliberately running into Laker’s big man Montrezl Harrell on his way to the Philadelphia bench after the buzzer sounded.
Howard and Harrell had already been called up for double tech fouls for tangled up with 1 minute and 8 seconds to go in the first quarter, making the second tech an automatic disqualification for Howard.
Harrell pushed Howard away and walked on to the Lakers bench, turning to wave goodbye to the three-time defensive player of the year winner as he made his case to Fitzgerald.
The Sixers won 109-101.
“I just thought it was a very selfish game,” Philadelphia coach Doc Rivers said of Howard. “You’ve got a tech, you can’t get another one. We just need to have better discipline. I get it. I know there’s a lot of emotion. But we had one center on our team and he got kicked out. Not very much there. “Happy about it. I know it’s an emotional game. But he’s a veteran. We need better discipline.”
What triggered the pair’s bad blood is unclear, but Harrell, last season’s Sixth Man of the Year when he played for the LA Clippers, would never have joined the Lakers in the off-season had Howard not signed with. the Sixers.
At the start of free agency in November, Howard tweeted, “I stay where I belong. Laker nation I love you guys. Purple and gold never get old.”
But in a bizarre turn of events, he quickly deleted the tweet and ended up getting a one-year, $ 2.6 million contract with Philadelphia. Later that day, the Lakers agreed to a two-year $ 19 million deal with Harrell.