Dwight Howard’s Quick Return to Basketball
Dwight Howard’s retirement turned out to be pretty short-lived.
In fact, it lasted less than a year.
Just six months after he announced his departure from the game, the Basketball Hall of Fame center—who will be inducted in 2025—is making a comeback, this time with Black Fortress Tbilisi in the Georgian Super League.
Now, to clarify, this isn’t the Georgia where he grew up near Atlanta. No, this Georgia is across the Atlantic. It’s home to players like the Magic’s Goga Bitadze and Lakers’ Sandro Mamukelashvili.
Howard seems to be embracing the geographical twist. He shared, “Georgia, I’ll be on my way! Not my hometown, Atlanta, Georgia, but Tbilisi, Georgia!” in his post announcing the new chapter.
He continued, “I saw all your flags in the comments on my last post and decided that’s where we should take the journey!”
Black Fortress earned its spot in the top division after competing in the second tier, which is a great achievement for them.
Admittedly, the GSL isn’t at the top of the list when it comes to international leagues—think of those elite ones like Liga ACB in Spain or Serie A in Italy. But still, it’s a place where Howard will keep playing professional basketball into his 40s.
“I’m coming here to spread the game of basketball, the game that I love,” he expressed excitedly in a video. “I cannot wait to start with the Black Fortress team, baby. Hey, we breaking everything down.”
Earlier this year, Howard declared he was stepping away from basketball to focus on his family. It’s been quite a journey for him since he last played in the NBA with the Lakers during the 2021-22 season.
After that, he joined the Taoyuan Leopards in Taiwan’s T1 League for the 2022-23 season, where he had impressive statistics, averaging 23.2 points, 16.2 rebounds, and five assists each game.
He also played for the Strong Group Athletics in a tournament in Dubai, and later on, he joined the Taiwan Mustangs for another Asian tournament. In 2024, he signed with the Mets de Guaynabo in Puerto Rico’s league, although he didn’t end up playing in any games there.
His basketball journey in the U.S. continued in 2025 when he signed with the Los Angeles Riot in Ice Cube’s BIG3 league.
Howard was the first overall pick by the Magic in the 2004 NBA Draft and spent 18 seasons in the league. Over the years, he earned eight All-Star selections and was recognized with eight All-NBA honors.
During his prime, he was a dominant player, particularly known for being the centerpiece of the Magic’s team that made it to the NBA Finals in 2008-09.
He also won three consecutive Defensive Player of the Year awards from 2009 to 2011 and was selected for the All-Defense team five times, with four appearances on the first team between 2009 and 2012.
