With the stage set for Dwight Howard's inglorious return to Orlando tomorrow night, Howard has been making his PR rounds in an attempt to not have tomatoes thrown at him during the pregame introductions. The problem for Howard is that he's kind of a jerk off, even when he's trying his hardest to not be.

Last week, in a sit down interview with Kristine Leahy, Dwight Howard told the world that he essentially played with scrubs for years, but through it all, always kept a very fake smile on his face.

Of course, two days later, he clarified that he meant what he told Kristine Leahy in an endearing fashion. The team was filled with underdogs... Except for Dwight because Dwight is an amazing person and athlete. Two days after that, he blamed the media.

Ironically, Howard pointing the figure elsewhere confirmed what his teammates, specifically Jameer Nelson, said of him in response to his remark via the Orlando Sentinel:

“At some point, when are you [Dwight] gonna as a man, when are you going to take ownership and stay out of the media in a professional manner?” Nelson told the Sentinel after Wednesday’s shooatround in Miami.

“I would be less of a man to comment on certain things that people comment on about me and my teammates. We had a great run as a group, as core guys, and he was a part of it (reaching the 2009 Finals) and for him to say things about anybody in a negative manner, that’s up to him.

“That’s his opinion. If that’s how he feels, that’s how he feels.”

Nelson and Howard were close, drafted together in the first round in 2004.

But their relationship eroded after Howard said that he would love to play with some of the league’s elite point guards, such as Chris Paul.

Via USA Today, yet another interview has been released in one last ditch effort for D12 to show you and, more importantly, the fine citizens of Orlando that, while he may not have been a completely amazing person last week, he's suddenly transformed into one:

"In Orlando, I handled a lot of stuff the wrong way," he said, sitting at his kitchen table. "If any of those people in Orlando are upset with how I did it, I apologize for the way I handled it and the way it was handled in the media.

"I really just got caught up in wanting to please everybody else. I really love that city. That was the hardest thing to do was to leave that city because I basically grew up there. That was my whole life. Orlando was it. I did not want to leave all that behind — the city, just everything about it. The fans. But I wanted a change for my life. I just felt like there was something else out there for me."

"There are a lot of things about me that have changed," said Howard, a 27-year-old Atlanta native who was drafted first overall out of high school in 2004. "I'm becoming a better man because of the stuff that has happened to me this last year and a half. Everybody goes through stuff like this. Even though I'm going through it where everybody in the world can see it, I'm happy that it's happening.

"If it didn't happen, I'd be stuck in my ways. I would never change, and then it would be a lot worse. For all this stuff to happen, for me to sit back and see and evaluate myself and what I could've done better and realize that I needed to make a change, I'm getting better. I'm growing up. I'm maturing."

Because the best kind of introspection happens instantaneously and is something that one should put everyone else on notice about. Besides that, I'm sure Orlando has already forgotten about you, Dwight.

Image via Bay News 9