22 battles between Kobe Bryant and LeBron James‘ was never enough. Turns out, the fans might have been robbed of the most epic of the battles of the two. And the one responsible for this is Dwight Howard. At least, that’s the claim he made on social media. While the intentions are unclear, a random netizen asked Howard about his 2009 defeat against Kobe Bryant and the Lakers. 

In response, ‘D12’ proudly admitted that he was able to break the alleged “script” of the NBA defeating LeBron James and the Cavaliers in the Conference Finals, and went on battle against Bryant. He claimed that the imaginary script of the NBA had planned for Bryant to pit against James. “I broke the script lol the script was supposed to be Bron vs Kobe they even made a commercial.”

The latest one came after he expressed his doubts on whether the “script” would let Kyrie Irving win the game. The Mavericks facing 89-107 loss against the Celtics was tough. “Will the script allow Kyrie to win,” Dwight Howard wrote on X.

Not so surprisingly, the NBA greats Bryant and LeBron’s matchups were always successful in garnering notable attention.

LeBron James and Kobe Bryant’s thunderous clashes

Their first heated and most entertaining battle was in 2006 when Bryant scored 38 points while James had 29 points. Despite having a 14-point lead, the Lakers were stunned by the Cavaliers, who made a strong comeback in the fourth quarter, gaining a 96-95 win.

The second most impressive encounter was in 2008, where the Cavaliers once again beat the Lakers 98-95. While Bryant shouldered the team with 33 points, four Cavaliers players scored in double digits, with LeBron dishing out 41 points. James holds a 16-6 record in games against Bryant.

In a matchup in January 2010, the Cavs won again, 93-87. While Los Angeles Lakers star Bryant had 31 points, LeBron notched up 37 points, and five rebounds, and also got help from Shaquille O’Neal, who put up 13 points.

This is not the first time. Many times, the former Orlando Magic star Dwight Howard has joked about this claim. Getting back to the present, tension is high on whether ‘Uncle Drew’ will break his streak during his consecutive loss against the Celtics. We are not sure about the script but like Howard, we have to wait and see whether Irving can sync back to his previous stance and pull out a monster performance.

Stay tuned for more such updates, and to follow what Shaq’s ex-agent, Leonard Armato, has to say about the Reese-Clark rivalry and more, watch this video.