Towards the latter part of his career, Dwight Howard has become a key player who can provide valuable minutes from the bench. Given his reduced role, it’s actually easy to forget that he was actually one of the best great men in the league during his heyday.
As such, Howard has amassed a great fortune throughout his colorful NBA career. As of this writing, the 6-foot-10-inch center is already in its 16th season in the league. Throughout his tenure, the three-time Defensive Player of the Year has pocketed a sizeable sum in wages, either on or off the court, and we take a closer look at his net worth in 2020 below.
Estimated net worth: $ 140 million
Celebrity Net Worth lists Dwight Howard with an estimated net worth of $ 140 million as of 2020. A sizable amount for a roleplayer who barely hits 20 minutes every night, right? Even more surprising to those who cannot appreciate how dominant Howard was during his heyday.
Howard was the first overall pick in the 2004 draft, with the Orlando Magic catching him off the board as his next big key man. It was touted as the next big event, literally, in Orlando after Shaquille O’Neal’s departure almost a decade earlier.
Howard made a big impact in the league early in his career, and by year 3 he was a true All-Star. This was rewarded for his first substantial contract, with Orlando signing Howard to a five-year rookie extension worth $ 83.2 million.
Howard Magic’s career reached its peak in 2009, when he led the team to the NBA Finals, only to be defeated by a Los Angeles Lakers squad led by Kobe Bryant. As fate would have it, Howard ended up joining Kobe in Los Angeles some three years later, with the Magic pulling the trigger on a successful four-team deal that ended Howard’s era in Orlando.
In Los Angeles, Howard had an infamously disappointing season in a single season, colliding with Bryant on multiple occasions. Howard became a free agent at the end of the 2012-13 season, and at the time, there was no chance he would re-sign with the Lakers.
This prompted Howard to bring his talent to Texas as he penned the paper in a maximum four-year deal with the Houston Rockets worth $ 87.5 million. At 28, Howard was one of the league’s top great men at the time, and the Rockets searched his pockets to take him to Houston.
However, after three years with the Rockets, Howard chose to reject the last year of his contract in the amount of $ 23.3 million. He entered free agency and finally signed another great contract with the Atlanta Hawks for $ 70.5 million over three years.
Howard then had a round trip over the next four years, bouncing from one team to another, and collecting a few million here and there, before finally landing again with the Lakers in 2019 with minimal agreement.
However, in terms of sponsorship deals, Howard wasn’t exactly a highly marketable individual despite being one of the best players in the entire league at one point in his career. However, he signed a massive deal with Chinese shoe brand Peak in 2015, which is estimated to be in the $ 15 to $ 30 million range.
Celebrity Net Worth estimates that Dwight Howard still earns more than $ 5 million per year in endorsements alone.
