Wed, July 17th, 2019

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Written while listening to Rolling Stones' I'm Free

 Dwight Howard denies, denies, denies   

On the court, Dwight Howard is no longer relevant. He’s put up empty stats for a half-decade and has played for four teams in four years. After being traded and bought out by Memphis on July 6, he’s a free agent without a home.Off the court, a strange incident in November, when a transgender man named Masin Elije, via a Twitter thread, accused Howard of sexual harassment, manipulation, and threatening behavior in an attempt to pay him hush money, has lingered.The tweets also outed Howard as allegedly gay. We wrote about this in November, mostly making the point that few media outlets were touching or even acknowledging it. Elije filed a lawsuit in March; Howard countersued.But he’s barely acknowledged the whole thing publicly, until today, when Howard discussed the allegations against him and his sexual orientation, on Kristine Leahy’s Fox Sports 1 show, Fair Game.It’s a two-part interview. The first part aired today, the second tomorrow. (It's must-see TV, but brace yourselves before turning to FS1. You might be blasted in the face with a Skip Bayless, Jason Whitlock, Cris Carter, Chris Broussard, Rob Parker, Clay Travis or Colin Cowherd take.)Here’s an extended clip, in which Howard: 

• Denies being gay. 

• Says he has never met, seen, or interacted with Elije: “It upset me because I didn’t know who the person was. I’m like, ‘Why would somebody who I’ve never met, never had any contact with, make up a whole story about me?’ I saw all the hate -- the pure hate -- from people that I’ve never met before, against me, and I think that liberated me.” 

• Says the situation enlightened him on the problem of homophobia: “I’m not gay, but there’s a lot of people who are. And they have to hide. And there’s people who have mental issues, and they have to hide. There’s people who have different problems in life and they have to hide. They have to put on their mask everyday. It’s like, I don’t want to where no mask. I just want to be me.” 

• Says the whole thing hurt to go through, and took him a couple of months to get over: “I sat and home and was like, ‘I never want to come outside again.’ … “[It took] a couple months to really just think, and understand myself.” 

Elije responded yesterday on Twitter by retweeting several people who accused Howard of lying.[READ: How Dwight Howard lost his way and is trying to get back]

The Memphis Grizzlies: Your new (Summer League) NBA champions

The Grizzlies beat the Timberwolves in the Summer League Finals on Monday night, 95-92, something of such little importance that Bleacher Report put up what to watch next suggestions over its YouTube highlight reel during the last play of the game, in which the Timberwolves actually had a chance to tie it.As SB Nation’s Tom Ziller pointed out, the Kings won the Summer League title in 2014. So, you know, it’s not so meaningful.But Ziller also made the point: Brandon Clarke’s production for Memphis was not meaningless. He was named Summer League MVP, with averages of 14.6 points and 8.6 rebounds per game for the tournament. Clarke, the 21st pick in the 2019 draft, is nearly three years older than Memphis’s Jaren Jackson, and could be a ready-made third piece for the Grizzlies alongside Jackson and Ja Morant.[READ: The 11 best rookies at NBA Summer League, ranked]

Chuck, candid  

Charles Barkley knows a lot about being supremely talented but also a lil chubby.He went on ESPN’s Get Up yesterday and gave some advice to Joel Embiid, who seems to be a healthy offseason away from being a true MVP candidate:

• "Joel Embiid has got to get his fat butt in shape.”

Where did he learn to dole out such advice? From one of the greatest:

• “When I got to Philadelphia in 1984, the most important person in my life, basketball-wise, said to me ‘you fat and you lazy.’ And I said ‘what do you mean?’ Moses Malone said ‘you fat and you lazy.’ He made me lose 50 pounds, and the rest is history.”

Chuck is a treasure, and always will be.

 Concrete Reads 

• The NBA’s supermax isn’t doing what it was supposed to [The Ringer]

• Women are more common on NBA sidelines. Now they want their presence to feel normal. [The WaPo]

• LeBron James Jr. is 14. He already draws curious crowds. [The New York Times]

 Podcast Pick

Zach Lowe and Bill Simmons talk Russell Westbrook, CP3 and dumb NBA teams[The Ringer]