There have been a few absurd injuries or mishaps on the basketball court at times. But Dwight Howard takes the cake for having the most uncommon injury of them all. The 2017-18 season was one of the last times fans witnessed Howard be himself on the court. Unlike most other leagues, the NBA is extremely competitive with a lot of dominant athletes. Howard was one of the best at his job.
At that point, the 3x Defensive Player of the Year was with the Charlotte Hornets. He also averaged 16.6 points along with 12.5 rebounds. Several teams were interested in having him on the roster, but the Washington Wizard succeeded during the 2018 off-season. He signed a two-year $10.9 million contract with the Wizards, but he barely got to appear in their uniform.
Sources on @TheAthleticNBA @WatchStadium: Washington Wizards center Dwight Howard visited a specialist in New York and has piriformis injury, which is a muscle in the buttocks. The injury isn’t serious and Howard will continue treatment.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) October 9, 2018
During the 2018-19 preseason, Dwight Howard experienced a significant amount of soreness in his back. After further examination, the Wizards medical team confirmed that Howard suffered from a piriformis muscle injury. This muscle is otherwise commonly known as the “butt” muscle. As expected, fans made fun of his gluteal setback. Even though he missed out on the first few games, Howard’s injury wasn’t as serious.
Dwight Howard had a lumbar microdiscectomy nine games after recovering from his butt injury
The butt muscle that Dwight Howard injured extends from the back to the buttocks, which explains why he felt soreness in the back area at first. After recovering, Howard appeared for nine games, but he didn’t play as well as he did. He averaged 12.8 points and 9.2 rebounds. It turns out Howard’s gluteal injury was something that needed a bit more medical attention than expected. He was ruled out for three weeks after needing a lumbar microdiscectomy to be done.
Howard had surgery on his L4-L5 to alleviate the muscle that caused the initial gluteal injury. But the center wouldn’t return to the court that season, unfortunately. Since that season, Howard never found himself a home in the NBA. The Los Angeles Lakers signed him the next season and he won an NBA Championship averaging 7.5 points and 7.3 rebounds.
During his final two seasons in the league, he first played with the Philadelphia 76ers after signing a one-year deal. Then he went back to play for the Lakers but the team experienced a tragic season. Howard wasn’t able to land himself a contract in the league following the 2021-22 season, thus leading him to join the Taiwanese T1 League. He spent one season there winning several accolades but returned to the United States for legal purposes.