When the Los Angeles Lakers signed Dwight Howard this offseason, people immediately began thinking of the disaster his first tenure was.
“Soft.”
A word that is so gentle, so mild.
“Teddy bear.”
A stuffed toy usually described as soft.
No, you haven’t stumbled upon a promo script for fabric softener.
These words, seemingly harmless, had a massive effect on Dwight Howard since leaving the Lakers for the Houston Rockets in the 2013 NBA offseason.
Lakers’ icon Kobe Bryant bellowed these sentiments during and after a regular-season matchup between Houston and Los Angeles in 2014.