Dwight Howard is starting to finally get serious about making the most out of this roller coaster of a season in L.A. He has never been one to blame others for his failures (although there haven’t been many to speak of until this year). Dwight came to the league so young, that his family sent Kevin Samples with him to be his primary advisor and protect his interests. The two became very close and enjoyed a lot of success together in Orlando. But after the fiasco of his final year in Orlando, and the poor decisions he’s made this season in L.A., Howard felt he needed a fresh start.
Howard is growing all on his own, single-mindedly focused on who he wants to be, and he has taken another major step forward in his career by leaving the business manager who has been Howard’s primary advisor his entire career, Kevin Samples.
“We had nine great years together,” Howard told me late Monday night. “Just time to go separate ways.”
But samples wasn’t just Howard’s advisor since he has been in the league, he is also a family member. It takes a lot of guts to realize your career has been headed in the wrong direction and fire a family member to set off in a new direction to rebuild your image and career.
“He’s still my cousin, my family, so we’ll always be around each other,” Howard said. “But we just parted ways on the business side.” (via)
Howard has refocused his efforts on rebounding and defense as of late. He’s no longer getting caught up in how many touches he gets, or who is the ‘leader’ of the team. He has stepped up defensively and his doing anything he can to help his team win so they can make the playoffs. This change in a personal advisor/manager role, outside the family, is just a part of Howard ‘growing up’ on the court and away from it.
