‘We wanted to destroy them’: Dwight Howard reveals LeBron James, Cavs vendetta during 2009 Finals run

Back in the late 2000’s, Nike came out with some pretty epic commercials featuring the puppet versions of LeBron James and Kobe Bryant. The ads got so big that the folks from Nike decided to come out with a mini-series of sorts centered on that theme. One of the ads involved a spot for the 2009 NBA Finals that pitted LeBron’s Cleveland Cavaliers against Kobe’s Los Angeles Lakers.

The problem about that particular commercial is that Cleveland never made it to the Finals to face Kobe and Co. Dwight Howard, who at that time was still with the Orlando Magic, defeated LeBron and the Cavs in the Eastern Conference Finals to spoil what would have been a dream NBA Finals.

In a recent episode of Shannon Sharpe’s Club Shay Shay podcast, the former NFL star got brutally honest with Howard about how Sharpe feels that he “ruined” the LeBron vs. Kobe Finals dream. Dwight was having none of it, though, as he clapped back at the slander:

“I’m glad I ruined it because that one ain’t right,” Howards 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.”

And Dwight Howard did just that against LeBron James and the Cavs in the East Finals. The 6-foot-10 big man led the Magic to a 4-2 series win behind 25.0 points on 63.5 percent shooting, 13.0 rebounds, 3.2 assists, and 1.4 blocks. Orlando then succumbed to the Lakers in the Finals, 4-1.

Sadly, we never saw LeBron face off against Kobe in the Finals. For his part, though, Dwight Howard is clearly proud of playing his part in this respect.