NBA. Dwight Howard Wants Kobe To Help Him at the Dunk Contest. Dwight Howard opened up over Instagram Live with teammate Jared Dudley on Wednesday about what went wrong in his relationship with Kobe Bryant when they played together for the Lakers in 2012-2013 By Avery Yang. Dwight Howard and Kobe Bryant haven't exactly gotten along in the past. Howard implored Laker fans to ask Kobe to assist him at this year's dunk contest. Dwight Howard said this last night after LeBron passed Kobe on the all-time scoring list: "We don’t appreciate each other as much as we should as a humanity.