Howard asked Magic to fire Van Gundy because he'd 'lost his touch with the team'

Dwight Howard has an hour-plus long documentary airing Wednesday in which the Houston Rockets center opens up about a number of topics. 

The documentary, "Dwight Howard: In the Moment," chronicles the superstar's basketball career, highlighting his relationships with former Orlando Magic coach Stan Van Gundy and Los Angeles Lakers shooting guard Kobe Bryant. 

Here's a preview of the documentary:

Howard admits that when he was with the Magic he asked management to fire Van Gundy after the team was ousted in the first round of the 2011 playoffs. 

Here's what Howard had to say about Van Gundy, according to ESPN's Marc Stein. 

We shouldn't be losing like this. I wanted to win. And I went to management and I said: 'Guys, I'm a player. I just want to give my two cents. I think that our coach has lost his touch with the team. Great coach, but I think he's lost his touch, I think he's lost his voice. And I think it's time that you guys get a new voice.' I said, 'I love him as a coach, but I think we need a new voice.' ... Six weeks (later), they finally respond (and say), 'We're gonna keep Stan.' So I'm like: 'OK. That lets me know how you guys feel about your leader expressing how to make the team better.' 

Howard also addressed how he later asked the Magic to trade him: 

That summer I just thought about what I needed for my career. And when I got back (to Orlando), I let those guys know that I wanted to be traded. ... I just wanted a change for myself. I didn't want it to be done publicly. I just wanted it to happen silently. And I'd go to a new team, start fresh. Well, it didn't happen that way. ... The season comes around and they asked me to come to the office, shook my hand and they said, 'We're gonna trade you tomorrow.' The next day the trade didn't happen, but they came out and said I wanted to be traded. And that's when everything went downhill. And I feel like I should have came out and said some things at that point to let people know what was going on, but in that situation I really didn't know what to do.

The relationship between Howard and Bryant deteriorated soon after the No. 1 overall pick from the 2004 draft joined forces with the Lakers superstar in Los Angeles: 

Before I got to the Lakers, I would talk to him (and) he would really help me out on the (down) low about how to become everything that I said I wanted to be. And I looked up to him and I looked up to everything he, as a basketball player, stood for. ... (By the end of that season) I just felt so hurt and disappointed in the fact that the guy that I was expecting to be somebody who was gonna pass the torch, somebody to say, 'Dwight, I'll take you under my wing and I'll show you how to get it done' ... it was none of that.

Howard battled a back injury during his lone year in Los Angeles that one of his surgeons said was potentially career-ending, according to Stein. While Howard wasn't at his best with the Lakers, the 6-foot-11, 265-pounder averaged 17.1 points, 12.4 rebounds and 2.4 blocks per game.