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NBA’s ‘Superman’ Throws Shade at Lakers: “I Didn’t Think LeBron [James] Should’ve Been Playing That Many Minutes”

Published 11/02/2022, 2:32 PM EDT

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USA Today via Reuters

LeBron James has been in the NBA for 19 seasons now and is currently playing his 20th season. Despite being 37, he has been performing at the highest level and continues to dominate teams with his performances. However, the Los Angeles Lakers have been very poor in the past two seasons and continue to struggle this season as well. LeBron has often single-handedly carried the Lakers despite being the senior-most player on their roster. Former Lakers star Dwight Howard has recently admitted that he doesn’t think the Lakers are managing LeBron’s minutes properly.

Dwight Howard, often dubbed as ‘Superman’ for his on-court athleticism, is still a free agent as he has failed to find a potential suitor for him in the league. He has played for the Lakers thrice in his career, with the most recent one coming last season. Howard even won his first and only championship with the Lakers in 2020, when he joined on a veteran minimum contract.

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Dwight Howard wasn’t a regular starter for the Lakers last season when they won just 33 games in the league. Howard feels that the Lakers failed to manage the minutes of their star players properly, which led to exhaustion.

Dwight Howard discusses Lakers managing LeBron James’ minutes last season

Free Agent Dwight Howard recently appeared on ‘Club Shay Shay’, hosted by Shannon Sharpe. At one point during their discussion, Sharpe pointed out LeBron James‘ minutes on the court for the Lakers.

“The objective was to try to play Bron somewhere between, I would say, 30 and 33 minutes,” Shannon Sharpe told Howard.

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To this Howard replied: “No, the objective was to play Bron the whole season, every game, every practice.”

USA Today via Reuters

Howard continued: “I’m not the coach. I didn’t think that LeBron should have been playing that many minutes early, anyway. Only because he been playing for 19 seasons. Yes, we know what you’re gonna get out of LeBron. Get everybody else into it. So when LeBron is there, we all hot. But if you taxing LeBron, you taxing AD, you taxing Russ. Now the main three players is tired. Just look at how the season went.”

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The Lakers went 33-49 last season and failed to reach the playoffs. They finished 11th in the Western Conference despite such a strong roster. Howard pointed out that the Lakers trio of LeBron, Davis, and Westbrook used to get tired due to the mismanagement of minutes. He also admitted that the Lakers lost the games due to fatigue and injuries to their star players.

The Lakers made a lot of changes on their roster this off-season. However, they still have their trio of LeBron, Davis, and Westbrook at their disposal. These players have the ability to change the game individually. But the Lakers are 1-5 this season and the situation is worrying for the franchise and their fans.

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Do you think the Lakers can bounce back from this? Let us know in the comment section below.

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Written by:

Abhishek Singh

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Abhishek Singh is an NBA writer at EssentiallySports with over two years of journalistic experience with Chase Your Sport and Dribl. A Football Management graduate, he has previously interned in the Indian Super League, I-League and the AFC Champions League. In addition to being a Michael Jordan fan, Abhishek is an ardent Steph Curry and Warriors guy, and believes they have a few more championships in store before the former retires.
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Edited by:

Satagni Sikder