Former NBA star Dwight Howard divulged in a recent podcast appearance that he was forced by the league's commissioner, Adam Silver, and his agents to apologize for tweeting "Free Palestine" in 2014.

"A couple of years ago, when I played for the Houston Rockets, I tweeted 'Free Palestine,' and I almost got kicked out of the league for it," Howard said during an appearance on The Gauds Show.

Howard, whose professional basketball career spanned 18 years, said he posted the tweet after Palestinian fans urged him to bring awareness to what was happening in their country, and he wanted people to know about Palestinians' struggles.

"Less than 10 minutes after I tweet that, I get a call from the commissioner of the NBA, agents, people working with my foundation at the time, Texans, 'You gotta erase this tweet. You gotta take this down,'" the one-time NBA champion shared. "Because I went against the grain and did something people didn't like."

Howard then deleted and apologized for the tweet, according to Vox.

The 39-year-old former athlete prefaced his experience by revealing that there are a lot of things NBA players want to say but don't because if they do, there will be repercussions and they can "get in a lot of trouble."

"I just got to a place where I couldn't trust nothing and nobody, so it's like I'm not gonna say nothing, do nothing, and then that was a problem too because other people were now speaking for me," he added.

Originally published by Latin Times

Tags
Palestine, NBA, Dwight howard