Dwight Howard unhappy with Lakers' description of his injury

Dwight Howard unhappy with Lakers’ description of his injury

By Mike Bresnahan and Ben Bolch

Jan. 8, 2013 12 AM PT

Dwight Howard was irritated and it had nothing to do with a basketball game.

He didn’t like how the Lakers described his shoulder injury.

“I don’t know what story came out and said I tore my labrum,” he said Tuesday, insisting the labrum instead “separated from the bone” in his right shoulder.

“They don’t want me to continue to aggravate it every day because that could cause problems later on in the season or it could become a point where somebody fouled me hard enough and it might tear the labrum so [the doctor] doesn’t want that to happen,” he said.

“When people saw [the terminology], they were thinking the worst. It’s not as bad as what people were saying. They just want to be real cautious with it and make sure it doesn’t happen to where it tears and I have to have surgery.”

A news release issued by the team Monday said that “an MRI exam revealed that [Howard] had a torn labrum and will be out indefinitely.”

Either way, Howard did not play Tuesday against Houston and won’t play Wednesday against San Antonio. He will be out until at least next Tuesday, perhaps a bit longer.

With Pau Gasol sidelined because of a concussion, rookie Robert Sacre started at center against Houston.

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Mike Bresnahan

Mike Bresnahan previously covered the Lakers for the Los Angeles Times. He started the beat in 2004, a month after Shaquille O’Neal was traded, and covered several seasons of mediocrity before the Lakers won back-to-back championships in 2009 and 2010. Now they’re back to mediocrity. Bresnahan is from Los Angeles, started with The Times after graduating the University of Wisconsin in 1994, and has also covered the L.A. Kings, pro beach volleyball and numerous colleges and high schools. He left The Times in 2016.

Ben Bolch

Ben Bolch has been a Los Angeles Times staff writer since 1999. He is serving his second stint as the UCLA beat writer, which seems fitting since he has covered almost every sports beat except hockey and horse racing. Bolch is also the author of the recently released book “100 Things UCLA Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die.” He previously covered UCLA basketball from 2010-11 before going on to cover the NBA and the Clippers for five years. He happily traded in gobs of hotel points and airline miles to return to cover UCLA basketball and football in the summer of 2016. Bolch was once selected by NBA TV’s “The Starters” as the “Worst of the Week” after questioning their celebrity journalism-style questions at an NBA All-Star game and considers it one of his finer moments.

Dwight Howard unhappy with Lakers’ description of his injury

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