Dwight Howard, as it turned out, almost got kicked out of the NBA over one social media post. According to the story of the eight-time NBA All-Star, it did not take even fifteen minutes before everyone around him asked him to delete the post he just made.
In his appearance on “The GAUDs Show,” Howard touched on an incident he had over a post he made over at Twitter (as it was called back then), where he posted #FreePalestine, and everyone else around him went crazy.
“When you’re in the NBA, there are a lot of things you want to say, but you know if you say them, there will be repercussions,” Howard said. “You could get into a lot of trouble. For example, a couple of years ago when I played for the Houston Rockets, I tweeted ‘Free Palestine,’ and I almost got kicked out of the league for it.
“I was just trying to figure out why.”
He then went on to tell the backstory behind the post. He said he met fans, some of whom were Palestinians. These fans asked for his support for the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine back then, to which he happily obliged.
“Me, having a big heart, thought, ‘This is the Christian thing to do.’ So, I tweeted “Free Palestine.””
That’s when everyone around him started calling him like he was a missing person.
“Ten minutes later, I got a call from the NBA commissioner, agents, people in my foundation and even folks from Texas telling me to take it down.”
“[They said] ‘You’re going to get in trouble. You need to delete the tweet.’ I was like ‘What did I do that was so bad? Can somebody explain?’”
The hashtag #FreePalestine gained traction on social media in 2014, particularly on Twitter, where celebrities, public figures, and ordinary users expressed their support towards the Palestinian people during the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, especially during the Gaza conflict and Israel’s Operation Protective Edge.
However, the hashtag also faced controversy as some people viewed it as being anti-Israel or even anti-Semitic, and equated it to being anti-Israel and wishing for the destruction of Jewish people.
Dwight Howard on Shaquille O’Neal Feud: “Do We Need to Throw Hands?”
In the same podcast, Dwight Howard also touched on the long-running feud he has with Shaquille O’Neal.
“I never disrespected him, but he’s always had something to say,” Howard said. “And at this point, I’m like, ‘Do we need to throw hands?’”
Dwight Howard played for 18 seasons in the NBA, spending his last season with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Credit: Getty Images
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Dan has been active in sports since 2016 and has worked behind the scenes as a scriptwriter for basketball, volleyball, and other sports. At a time, Dan has also been working as a sports commentator for CBA Pilipinas. During the pandemic, he has also been actively writing betting articles for CashBet and BetNow.
