Kobe Bryant and LeBron James are two of the best players of all time and the most famous faces in the NBA in the last 22 years or so. These two legends had their time to dominate the competition, and when Kobe stopped going to the Finals with his Los Angeles Lakers, LeBron took over and started a terrific streak of Finals appearances in the 2010s.
Even though these two were always in the conversation for the championship, we never got to see them going at it in the Finals, although we had some times when that possibility was really big.
Back in 2009, everybody thought we would have the duel we always wanted to see, with Kobe and LeBron going at it for the Larry O’Brien trophy. However, this never came to fruition as somebody else had different plans that season and ended LeBron’s chances to play in his second Finals.
Dwight Howard Knows People Wanted To See LeBron James And Kobe Bryant In 2009 Finals
Dwight Howard was a beast in his prime, dominating the league from 2007 through 2012 and having one of the most impressive peaks we’ve seen in recent times. He was a beast on defense, a limited but effective scorer, and somebody who would give rivals problems in any way.
He single-handedly led the Orlando Magic to the Finals that season, competing against Bryant in the biggest series of all. Unfortunately, he eliminated LeBron and his Cavs from the competition with that win, which was a big one for Dwight. He ruined the possibility of seeing Kobe and LeBron play against each other in the Finals, but Howard has no regrets about it.
During a recent interview with Shannon Sharpe, the future Hall of Famer talked about his motivation going into that series against the King and how some muppets fueled him to beat James.
I was looking forward to seeing Kobe and LeBron play each other in the Finals. Sorry, @DwightHoward @clubshayshay pic.twitter.com/yZ1BOpgqwV
— shannon sharpe (@ShannonSharpe) November 2, 2022
“I’m glad I ruined it because that one ain’t right,” Howard said. “They pissed our whole team off. I’m glad we went out there and we showed LeBron and the Cavs that, ‘Hell naw. The puppet got to go.’
“For real, because I’m like, ‘How y’all gonna have a whole Nike commercial about LeBron and Kobe in the Finals, and they ain’t even in the Finals yet?’ And we took that hard. … We wanted to destroy LeBron and the Cavs because of that.”
In the end, the Orlando Magic beat LeBron and his Cavaliers in six games, earning the right to face the ultimate boss in the Finals. Unfortunately, they couldn’t keep up against Kobe Bryant and co., with the Lakers adding the 15th title in franchise history with a 4-1 win in the Finals.
Dwight was a monster during those years, and that’s the reason why he should be a top-75 player of all time right now. However, people quickly forgot about his incredible run, but he doesn’t forget about the victories he got and the dream matchup he ruined for everybody.
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