According to ESPN, the individual who first filed a civil lawsuit against former Los Angeles Lakers star Dwight Howard, accusing him of abuse and sexual assault, has dropped the case. On Monday, August 19, the case was dismissed in Georgia’s Gwinnett County Court. Harper has dismissed all of his claims against Howard with prejudice, so he is no longer able to refile a case based on those claims.
According to ESPN, Howard’s legal team, represented by Justin Bailey, claimed that Harper was not compensated to withdraw the complaint. Two years after his said contact with Howard—who was still a Lakers player in 2021—Harper first filed the case in July 2023. He claimed that the eight-time NBA All-Star center had falsely imprisoned him, intentionally caused him emotional suffering, and sexually assaulted him.
According to an October 2023 filing, Howard refuted Harper’s claims. In defense of himself, the three-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year stated that he had “consensual sexual activity” with Harper. Harper’s attorneys stated in the original complaint, which ESPN was able to view, that their client and Howard had their first conversation via direct message on Instagram in May 2021.
Harper provided two pieces of proof to support his allegations: an Uber voucher detailing his trip to the former NBA player’s Georgia home the night of the purported encounter and screenshots of the supposed Instagram conversations between him and Howard.
Harper took a year to notify the Gwinnett County Police Department about the incident, as reported by ESPN. At the time, no charges had been made.
According to the December lawsuit that ESPN was able to get, Howard’s attorneys stated, “This is nothing more than a classic case of unrequited love.” “Mr. Howard was no longer interested in keeping Mr. Harper company after one consensual evening together.”
Dwight Howard Travels to Asia with His Act Following the NBA After his third and final NBA season with the Lakers in 2022, Howard, 38, traveled to Asia to perform. Serving as Anthony Davis’ backup, he won a championship with the Lakers in the 2020 Orlando Bubble.
Howard made his basketball debut in the 2022–2023 season in Taiwan’s professional league. The 6-foot-10 Howard, who was a dominant force in the lower leagues despite his advanced age, took home multiple awards, including MVP of the All-Star Game and Most Valuable Import.
Following his time in Taiwan, he joined former NBA players Andray Blatche, Andre Roberson, and undrafted McKenzie Moore on the Philippine-based squad Strong Group. The squad, which had a number of famous players, finished with a silver medal in the Dubai International Basketball title in January 2024, but it was not enough to win the title.
Subsequently, Howard joined the Taiwan Mustangs as a player-owner and signed Quinn Cook and DeMarcus Cousins, two other former Lakers, for the Asian Tournament.
In July, Howard was last seen taking a trip with his children in the Philippines. NBA Comeback Bid Failed Howard made an NBA comeback attempt with the Golden State Warriors the previous year. Despite the hype, he never quite made it as he was seen working out with multiple Warriors veterans.
At the time, Mike Dunleavy Jr., general manager of the Warriors, stated that Howard was just one of the guys they brought in for evaluation.
Sadly for Howard, the Warriors think they have enough big men on the roster this year to challenge for the title. In September 2023, Dunleavy stated of Howard, “We’ve got five guys that can play center in training camp.” It seems to me that you can’t play more than one of these positions.
Thus, I want to make sure that each player receives adequate reps. I believe that we have discussed this with the coaching staff as well, and I believe that’s the direction we’ll go moving forward.
After his NBA return attempt failed, Howard tweeted something mysterious. “The only way to survive the path of knowledge is as a WARRIOR. A WARRIOR has no regrets or complaints. He faces constant challenges in his life. Furthermore, challenges are unable to be good or negative. Simply put, challenges are challenges. Go be [Great] [emojis], Howard wrote on X, the previous Twitter platform.
