Five All-NBA 1^st team selections and three Defensive Player of the Year awards, to go along with career averages of 18 points & 13 rebounds. Ignoring all the name-calling, indecision, instability and hate thrown his way, Dwight Howard has had a pretty successful career in the NBA. That being said, those aforementioned characteristics that have followed him throughout his career are pretty hard to ignore.

Howard has left an ugly trail of uncertainty dating back to 2011, his last year with the Orlando Magic. It certainly wasn’t a pretty breakup with them or eventually, the Los Angeles Lakers. The repeated trade demands and ensuing redactions caused many to grow tired of him and question his place in the league. Some say he’s on the decline and no longer an elite big man.

But if we’re being completely honest, Dwight Howard’s talent has never really been the issue. Though many considered this year to be a “down year” for Howard, he still managed to be an All-Star and won the rebounding title. The issue lies with how well he can mesh with other players and if he can fit with James Harden & Co. after the interesting-at-best, disaster-at-worst season in Los Angeles.

That’s a big “if”, considering he was never quite able to get adjusted with Steve Nash, Kobe Bryant and Mike D’Antoni. Granted, the Lakers had more than their share of injury issues, but if things don’t work out in Houston, Howard will likely be remembered in LA for not being able to get it done with two Hall-of-Famers around him. That, and his jokester-like personality, is what have gotten many Rocket fans worried and left Laker fans beyond frustrated.

It’s certainly understandable that Howard saga was maddening to follow over these last couple of years, but at times the frustration has not been rational. Sure, Dwight Howard has perhaps changed his mind more than any other superstar, but has anyone stopped to consider if that’s a bad thing? Seriously? Though sometimes Dwight’s actions were childish and hard to comprehend, Howard never did anything that was out of bounds concerning his contracts with LA or Orlando. Everyone knew that his decision this year to play in Houston was big for the league, but it was big for himself too.

And that’s something a lot of people haven’t considered throughout this ordeal.  Howard was choosing a lot of things along with where he was playing basketball. He was choosing how he’d be remembered in Los Angeles, how he’d be remembered by his teammates there-shoot, he was choosing where he was going to live for the next four to five years of his life (why is this not a bigger topic of conversation with free agents)? There were a lot of things on the line for Howard, and it wouldn’t have been surprising for anyone if he changed his mind multiple times. Perhaps some would say he shouldn’t have dragged the public along, but part of that was the media dragging him along-imagine literally hundreds of journalists are all working at once to figure out where you’re going to go play basketball for the next couple of years before you’ve even made your mind up. And for the record, he made his decision pretty quickly this year-it came on July 5^th, five days before he was even allowed to sign a contract.

Point is 2013 is not the time to give up on Dwight Howard. Not the year where he came off back problems and chemistry issues and still managed to start in the All-Star game. Call him immature, call him a crybaby, call him whatever-that doesn’t change the fact he’s one of the best players in the game. Dwight Howard isn’t Kobe Bryant-an aggressive, win-at-all-cost, be-mean-if-you-have-to player. Dwight’s a kid. A 27-year-old kid who wears a big smile and loves the game, (he said he cried for LeBron when the Heat won in 2012) but at the end of the day just wants to have fun. And that’s okay. We’ve got every reason to believe in Howard as we do to be skeptical of him. He’s written an interesting story so far, but Howard says that Houston gives him an opportunity to “write his own story.”  So maybe instead of trying to finish the rest of the story on our own, as the fans and media love to do, we should let him write this next chapter by himself-though he might go through a couple of rough drafts along the way.