Full Recap of Dwight Howard’s Wild Return to the City of Orlando

Dwight Howard's first game back in Orlando against his former team was full of all the fireworks and angry boos that would be expected, but Howard would get the last laugh with a huge game. How did Howard handle it all? Well we've got go back to the beginning to really get a full picture.

From the moment he stepped off the plane there was intrigue, all the way through to the final word of the post-game press conference.

The Los Angeles Lakers came into Orlando trying to regain their hold on the eighth seed in the Western Conference, but their 106-97 win over the Magic was much bigger than that in the grand scheme of basketball things.

An Orlando Sentinel editor in sports: "Not even the naming of a new pope is going to knock Dwight off the front page."

— Brian K. Schmitz (@MagicInsider) March 12, 2013 It was, of course, Dwight Howard's first game back in Orlando since being traded to the Lakers before the start of the season.

This wasn't one that was talked about for weeks in advance like LeBron James returning to Cleveland for his first game back in his hometown back in 2010, but there was definitely some animosity still lingering.

Just take a look at the billboards thrown up around Orlando for Dwight's arrival:

Check out this billboard in Orlando for Dwight Howard twitter.com/Ballislife/sta…

— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) March 12, 2013 The Lakers came in to practice a few hours before the game, as a large hoard of reporters stood and waited for a word with Howard and his feelings on the inevitable return and what he expected out of the crowd.

Howard made them wait.

And, as you might guess, there are a number of Orlando media members awaiting Mr. Howard: twitpic.com/cas7pn

— sam_gardner (@sam_gardner) March 12, 2013 Steve Nash probably just took the social world by storm with his comment "this is the longest Dwight ha...