Dwight Howard: Kobe Bryant was going to help me in the dunk contest

Dwight Howard revealed that Kobe Bryant had accepted his invitation to help him in the upcoming Slam Dunk Contest.

Per ESPN,”He was going to do something for me in the dunk contest, which is kind of heartbreaking,” Howard said Tuesday following the Lakers’ 129-102 win over the San Antonio Spurs. “It’s been on my mind every day. Man, I can’t believe it. I’m still in shock. It hurts. It’s tough. I just never thought that somebody like that would be gone.

Just days before Bryant’s death, Howard appealed to Lakers fans through the reporters speaking to him after a game at Madison Square Garden against the New York Knicks to encourage Bryant to join him in the dunk contest.

Howard told ESPN that both Lakers vice president of basketball operations, Rob Pelinka, and his agent, Charles Briscoe, got word prior to the tragedy that took the lives of Bryant, his daughter Gianna, and seven others on Jan. 26 that Bryant would indeed by joining him at All-Star weekend.