WASHINGTON — With his megawatt smile and cheesy, cornball charm, Dwight Howard can still win a news conference. Howard has become an expert in that area over the past six years, captivating rooms in Los Angeles, Houston, Atlanta, Charlotte and now Washington with some witty jokes, self-effacing reflections and promises of grandeur that have yet to be fulfilled.

Why Howard has been placed in this position once again — and will soon be able to claim that he’s played for one-fifth of the teams in the NBA — is a question that he can’t easily answer. But in repeating comments that he’s expressed several times before at previous stops, Howard stated that he wanted to play until he’s 40 and retire with (insert new team here). He also weaved together his path from larger-than-life-superstar to reluctant journeyman into an awesome soundbite: “I learned Magic for eight years. Traveled to La La Land. Learned how to work with Rockets. And then I went and learned how to fly with some Hawks. Got stung by the Hornets. Just a joke. But through all of that, it’s taught me how to be a Wizard.”

The room was filled with laughter and amusement. Howard knew he aced it, chuckling to himself in that moment and later as he checked social media several minutes after the cameras and recorders slipped away to see that the comment went viral. Behind the showmanship and the giggles is a player whose game still has substance; a player whose passion should never be questioned given the work he’s invested into regaining some of that cartoonish athleticism following several major injuries; a player who remains in pursuit of a championship that has become ever so elusive since he came the closest with Orlando in 2009. But that player’s image has also been smeared by the perception that he’s a disruptive force whose departures are celebrated by teammates and coaches alike.

“I know it’s a narrative. I know it’s a story. And I know it was someone else’s opinion that started it. And then it’s just something that kept going,” Howard said. “It’s like when I was Orlando that wasn’t the narrative. Because we were winning. The narrative in Orlando was I smiled too much. That was the whole thing. He smiles too much. He doesn’t take the game serious. Then it became, I wasn’t smiling, now he doesn’t enjoy the game. ‘Look he doesn’t even smile anymore. He needs to stop playing.’ It’s always something to where if I’m doing what everyone else wants me to do, I’ll never be happy.”

View photos Like most of his recent stops, things just didn’t work out for Dwight Howard in Charlotte. (AP) More

The Wizards are aware of the risk involved in taking on a player who is about to suit up for his fourth team in four years, but are also desperate enough to see if Howard could be the piece that helps John Wall and Bradley Beal finally take the next step. Each situation in Howard’s bounce around the league has been unique: his personality never meshed with Kobe Bryant with the Lakers and he couldn’t flee fast enough. James Harden began his ascension into stardom just as Howard began to show signs of a physical decline in Houston, where the coach who was looking to feed Howard the ball eventually got canned. His homecoming in Atlanta soured quickly, prompting the Hawks to go into rebuild mode. And his reunion with Steve Clifford in Charlotte resulted in some memorable performances — such as his first career 30-30 game — but ended with Clifford getting fired and several teammates annoyed by his mere presence. The dots don’t connect in a straight line, but Howard has been the common thread through all of the drama. And the shocking trade to Brooklyn — and subsequent scuttle about him not being well liked in the Hornets’ locker room — provoked Howard enough to reach out to Hornets general manager Mitch Kupchak and new coach James Borrego for an explanation.

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