Last month, Masin Elije, who claims he had a gay relationship with NBA star Dwight Howard, filed a civil lawsuit against Howard in Gwinnett County, Atlanta. While most of the information about the court documents has been kept private, the fact that Elije’s lawsuit is a civil one tells us that he is seeking some type of monetary compensation. When the media has attempted to contact Elije about the case, he has declined to speak about it, saying he is not allowed to discuss an ongoing case.
The court documents do reveal that Howard wanted Elije to stay quiet about something. Elije claims that Howard asked him to sign a non-disclosure agreement about some of the communications they shared back in November 2018. Elije wouldn’t sign the agreement and decided to stop contacting Howard.
“Mr. Elije started receiving threats to his safety and well-being via a multitude of phone calls, text messages, communications on various social media platforms and emails, all of which were from unfamiliar or disguised sources,” the lawsuit says, according to TMZ .
However, Howard is stating he has never even met Elije in person, never asked Elije to sign a non-disclosure agreement, and feels that Elije is filing the lawsuit in an attempt to get money out of Howard. Howard says he is planning to countersue Elije.
“I don’t know this person, never seen him. Any allegation said about me is false,” Howard said, according to TMZ .
However, in the past, Elije has spoken out publicly about what he claims happened with Dwight Howard. Elije alleges that he and Howard were in a gay relationship together. However, the relationship ended when Elije discovered Howard cheated on him with a transgender woman. Elije also claims to have met Howard at a Wild n’ Out party, and Howard encouraged Elije to contact him on a fake Instagram account Howard used to prevent leaks to the media. Through Instagram, they messaged, flirted, exchanged pictures, and began talking often to each other.
Good news. Dwight Howard has taken another positive step in his post-surgery recovery.
Details: https://t.co/k8NKVUUjVt pic.twitter.com/wysxtoYQ2O
— NBC Sports Wizards (@NBCSWizards) February 20, 2019
However, after the two started their relationship, Elije says he found out Howard had been unfaithful to him, so he wanted to end things with Howard. At that point, Elije says the harassment started.
“My relationship with Dwight pretty much was over in my eyes, especially after he threatened [me]… of course I’m mouthy and threatened him back and said harsh things,” Elije tweeted, according to Black Sports Online .
Regardless of what’s being alleged about Howard’s personal life, he recently got engaged to Te-a Cooper, a 21-year-old female basketball player.
