Lakers' Dwight Howard vs. Knicks' Carmelo Anthony: Who Will Win a Championship First?

What do Dwight Howard and Carmelo Anthony have in common? A lot, from a glance.

Both are wildly popular and highly successful NBA superstars. Both score in bunches and turn teams into playoff contenders. Both have had publicized differences with their coaches (Anthony with Mike D'Antoni, Howard with ex-Magic coach Stan Van Gundy.) Both basically forced their way out of their old teams after years of success. And both are considered two of the best NBA stars in their era to have not won an NBA championship.

This week, both players return to the site of their former glory with Howard having returned to Orlando for the first time since he was traded last summer and Anthony returning to Denver for the first time since his last game there in 2011.

Howard came close to a title ring, taking the once-hapless Orlando Magic from the outhouse to the penthouse in 2008-09 when his Magic squad stunned the LeBron James-led Cleveland Cavaliers in six games during the Eastern Conference Finals to win the East and head to the NBA Finals for only the second time in the franchise's history.

However, against a Kobe Bryant-led Lakers squad coached by Phil Jackson, Howard and the Magic were beaten in five games, though a few of those losses were very close. He could, and probably never would, come that close again with the Magic, and sensing that, Howard forced the Magic's hand in trading him to the Los Angeles Lakers last summer.

Yet, Howard can at least say that he's been to the Promised Land of the NBA Finals. Anthony, for all of his accomplishments, can't say the same.

In his nine years, Anthony has garnered six NBA All-Star appearances and turned the Nuggets from a laughingstock to playoff contender from his debut in the 2003-04 season after being drafted third in the highly praised 2003 NBA Draft.

The trouble is, however, he's only ever gotten out of the first round one time in his nine-year career, the 2008-09 season, where he and Chauncey Billups took the Nuggets all the way to the Western Conference Finals, where they fell to the Lakers in six games.

Before and since then, Anthony's teams have been one-and-done in the playoffs--a trend that has continued to follow Anthony to New York, where his teams have been eliminated in first round losses to the Celtics and the Heat since Melo forced the Knicks to trade him at the 2011 NBA Trade Deadline two Februarys ago.

Fast forward to one year later.

Howard's Lakers were expected by many, after the Lakers paired Howard and free agent/NBA great Steve Nash with Bryant and Pau Gasol, to coast all the way to the Finals for a possible showdown with Miami. Instead, the Lakers, plagued by injuries, have looked old and sluggish for the entire first half of the season as they spent most of it under the .500 mark.

And yet, there is now hope as the Lakers have caught a second wind in the last month to claw back into playoff contention. But talented as the Lakers are, no one can tell how long this late-season drive towards the playoffs will last. And if they get in, what then? Do they catch everyone by surprise and become a dark horse team (strange as it is to say those words, considering the preseason hype they had) and go all the way to the Finals? Or will they short out with a one-and-done first round exit?

Meanwhile, nobody really knew what to expect of the Knicks after they surrounded Anthony with veteran (and quite old) players such as Jason Kidd, Rasheed Wallace and Marcus Camby. And yet, the Knicks surprised everyone with a powerful first half of basketball that saw them propel to the top of the Atlantic Division, beating the Heat twice, as well as other contenders, in what appeared to be a title contending season.

Unfortunately, their age caught up with them as a slew of ill-timed injuries slowed down the Knicks' roll, sidelining Anthony at several times and others key players (Amar'e Stoudemire, Raymond Felton, Wallace) for longer stretches. New York is still on top of the East and high in the standings, but with the Indiana Pacers heating up, the No.3 seeded Knicks may find themselves falling in the playoff seedings to first-round where they don't match up well, such as the defensively sound Boston and Chicago squads.

However, in all honesty, barring an incredible hot streak that can carry Anthony's and Howard's squads from late April onwards, neither team at the moment looks like a lock to go deep into the playoffs. The competition out there in each conference is steeper with James and the Heat and the Pacers in the East and the Thunder, Spurs and Clippers in the West.

Neither team has too much wiggle room under the salary cap. But both the Lakers and the Knicks have deep pockets and have the ability to spend past the salary cap without being too hurt by it.

Yet, if history is any indication, it could be Howard that hoists the James Naismith trophy above his head in June before Anthony does. The Lakers have had better decision-making skills on trades, as their coup of landing Pau Gasol years ago shows, and wisely jettisoning often-injured Andrew Bynum for Howard via trade last season.

The Knicks, by contrast, have not had that same luck.

Stoudemire's signing put them back on the map after years of futility, but there was a reason teams weren't willing to take a chance on him: as talented as Stoudemire is, his knees can never seem to hold up, as his frequent returns to the inactive list this season demonstrate. New York also had some questioning whether trading Danilo Gallinari and other talented young players to the Nuggets for Anthony was ill-advised, undoing much of the work that ex-GM Donnie Walsh had done over two seasons. And while their initial signings of veterans for this season seemed to pay dividends at first, the injuries plaguing them now make those signings look like bad investments.

Individually, both have reputations as players that can't win the big one. For Howard, he has been deemed too immature to win. Anthony has been criticized for being too much of a ball hog and unable to get his teammates more involved, leading to his teammates standing around watching Melo as he scores. Maturity comes with time, in most cases, and Howard can conceivably develop that same drive that motivates Byrant and James to be the best. Anthony, however, has the problem of needing the right go-to guy when he can't score. He has never had a partner the way James has Dwayne Wade and Kobe had Gasol. And, judging from the way that the Stoudemire and Jeremy Lin experiments have worked out alongside Anthony, there's the question of whether Anthony can play alongside another ball-handling scorer.

Plus, there is the question of how much the title means to each franchise. The Lakers are expected to compete for an NBA title each year, the way the Yankees are in baseball. Winning is part of their tradition, as their 16 titles attest to. As close as the Knicks have come in the 90s, years of futility have left a black mark on the proud Knicks franchise that hasn't won a title since 1973. Winning is now expected in New York, but unless something drastic happens, title dreams seem to be just that--a dream.

All in all, Anthony and Howard can make their teams competitive and in the thick of playoff hunts for years to come. But chances are that Howard will be the one that will get his ring, maybe several, before Anthony does...assuming Anthony gets a ring at all.