Report: Dwight Howard mocked Kobe Bryant in All-Star locker room

Let’s start out right here — take this report with a grain of salt. Actually, a handful of kosher salt. I say that because there was no buzz about this in Houston. I say take the salt because every NBA reporter in America who breaks these kind of stories was in Houston and it leaked out through a celebrity page a couple days later. And I say grab salt because it seems over the top.

But the New York Post (another reason to take with salt) is reporting that Dwight Howard mocked Kobe Bryant behind his back in the All-Star Game locker room.

Relations between Kobe Bryant and his Lakers teammate Dwight Howard were beyond icy during the weekend’s All-Star game in Houston — with Howard mocking Bryant behind his back in the locker room, sources exclusively tell Page Six. Amid other reports that the Lakers’ chilly on-court chemistry was spilling into the locker room, we’re told that Howard “grabbed Kobe’s uniform, put it on, and imitated him in front of all the other players on the West team. He was joking and berating Kobe” to fellow NBA stars, including the Clippers’ Chris Paul and Blake Griffin and Oklahoma City Thunder star Kevin Durant. The source added Bryant later arrived in the locker room, “said hello to everyone on the team except Howard, grabbed his stuff and moved as far away from Howard as he could.”

Expect the denials from Howard in 5…4…3…

And I’ll actually believe Howard on this one. This report seems over the top, even for him. I feel I have to pass this report along, but I’ll say again I don’t believe it and won’t until we get better confirmation. Not that it’s impossible, I just don’t see it.

I will say that Dwight Howard seemed back to his joking, having fun self more over the weekend as attention was lavished on him and he was in a game without the weight of expectations and desperation that comes with the Lakers games now. He was taking half-court hook shots in All-Star warm-ups and shot a three pointer in the game. He liked the lighter mood of the weekend. Until people asked him about the Lakers, then he just seemed miserable again.

So where does the rumor come from? Well, if you were in Howard’s camp and wanted the Lakers to trade him, this would be a good rumor to start. If you were a team interested in trading for Dwight Howard or getting him as a free agent this summer, then leaking this kind of rumor to hopefully drive more of a wedge in the Lakers locker room is a strategy. But that’s very different than reality.