Nelly was a guest on ESPN's First Take when Dwight Howard signed a multi-year deal with the Houston Rockets. To add spice to the subject, Cari Champion quizzed Nelly to share his honest opinion about why Howard left the Los Angeles Lakers .
The award-winning rapper paused for a moment and hesitated to say that he believed Kobe Bryant was the reason D12 took his talents to H-Town. As expected, the outspoken Stephen A. Smith quickly rebutted, and the pair had a brief yet intense debate on national TV.
Nelly: "Who wants to play with Kobe?"
Smith: "Oh, you're about to go blasphemous!"
N: "That's my point, you see? that reaction right there. That reaction right there is why the Lakers are in the state that they're in right now
SAS: "You're blaming Kobe?!"
N: "I'm not blaming Kobe, but who has ever blamed Kobe? Has Kobe ever been held responsible for any of his actions?
SAS: "Oh, yeah! When Shaquille O'Neal left…"
N: "But then what happened? he got two 7-footers and got you two more rings. So, you trying to tell me Kobe Bryant couldn't put a phone call in to get Phil Jackson two more days? I don't think Kobe wanted Phil Jackson. I think he's that type of person that he's trying to prove that he can win a ring without Phil Jackson."
Dwight thinks he and Kobe were just too different
Howard only played one full season alongside Bryant. Though short, their time together as teammates was filled with drama and turbulence.
Admittedly, Dwight realized that he and Kobe were completely different, and it didn't take long before their contrasting mentalities as players affected the team's chemistry. Looking back, the All-Star center believed he and Bryant wanted the good for themselves and the team, but they weren't meant to do it as a duo.
"I really can't speak for Kobe, so I'll speak for myself," Howard once said . "In that season that I played here, I think there was a lot of egos that was [sic] in the way of us being the team we wanted to be."
"I know that I approached that season wanting to be the best version of myself and also the man," he added. "You know, I'm young; I just felt like that at the time. It was really hard for me and Kobe to really communicate. I think we were just at two different mental stages."
Related: Lawrence Taylor recalls Michael Jordan begging for foul calls during their UNC scrimmages: "I just hit you a little bit, come on, man"
D-12 and Kobe planned to have an epic reunion
Regardless of what Nelly and Stephen A. thought about what led to the premature downfall of the fractious Kobe-Howard tandem in LA, what remains a fact is that the two superstars didn't hate each other afterward.
In fact, D12 even revealed that he and Bryant have agreed to link up for the 2020 NBA Dunk Contest, but sadly, the five-time NBA champion was killed in a helicopter crash. Understandably, Howard regrets not being able to do that and, more importantly, being unable to tell Kobe how he truly felt about him .
Related: Yes, from somebody upstairs in the office" — Shaquille O'Neal says the Lakers threatened to break up the team if they didn't win the 2004 Finals
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