Why didn't Dwight Howard return to Lakers after 2020 title? He and Jeanie Buss clear the air

Dwight Howard was confused.On a team led by LeBron James and Anthony Davis, Howard had been viewed as a key role player during the Lakers’ 2020 NBA championship season. But he wasn’t brought back the following season.“I was so sad. I wanted to come back,” Howard said on this week’s episode of his “Above the Rim with DH12” podcast. “And I don’t know what had happened.”His guest, Lakers controlling owner Jeanie Buss, was also confused — by Howard’s comment.“You took an offer from the Philadelphia 76ers,” Buss told him.During a conversation that seemed genuinely warm and caring, Howard and Buss cleared the air about the end to the second — and most successful — of Howard’s three stints with the Lakers. The eight-time All-Star indicated he had been led to believe by his agent at the time that the team had no interest in re-signing him as a free agent.Howard’s former agent was Charles Briscoe, who pleaded guilty last year in his role in defrauding…