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No more fun and games for Magic's Dwight Howard
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By Jeff Zillgitt
October 13, 2010
Orlando, FL — Every October for the last few seasons here, the focus has been on Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard's offense.
Does he have more moves than the running baby hook and drop step dunk from the left block? What did he do in the offseason to become a dominant low post scorer?
Magic coach Stan Van Gundy cites a different improvement, which can't be ascertained by watching Howard's moves.
"His biggest improvement as far as impact on our team has been his whole approach, being a lot more serious," Van Gundy says. "He always worked hard, but he'd have moments in practice where he'd start goofing around and joking around.
"It got a little bit less and less every year. It's gone totally now. He's serious every single day, and as a result, everyone else is, too. ... It's been drastic. It was noticeable to his teammates right away. It didn't take many days before guys were like 'Wow, this is different.' "
Van Gundy guessed the change in demeanor stems from last season's loss to the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference finals.
He guessed right.
"Me getting older … I know that we have a window for us to win a championship, and I don't want to miss that window," says Howard, just 24 but beginning his seventh NBA season.
"When the leader is serious, there's no playing around. We all have to have the same attitude. Otis (Smith, the general manager) says it. Coach says it. Pat (Ewing, an assistant coach) says it. The team's going to go as far as I take it, and I have to have a more serious approach."
One caveat: "The one thing (teammates) did say was they don't want me to stop joking. 'But when we step between those lines we understand you're not going to be playing around.' "
Howard's demeanor is not the only development that has impressed the Magic. In June, Howard spent time in Houston working out with former Rockets center Hakeem Olajuwon. Howard says he sometimes is baffled by the fixation on his offensive game. He averaged 18.3 points and 13.2 rebounds last season.
"Like Hakeem and all the bigs say, if they're going to give you the lane and you have a chance to dunk the ball or shoot it, the dunk is the easiest shot in the world," he says. "When they stop that, that's when you do other things."
In comes Olajuwon.
In the conference finals, the Celtics took a 3-0 lead against the Magic; Howard had a seven-point, seven-rebound effort in Game 3. He was down. Olajuwon got in touch.
"He lifted my spirits," Howard says. "He was motivating me, and helping me motivate my team. I saw a difference in me in the rest of the series."
In June, the two worked out together. In a video on Olajuwon's YouTube page, the Hall of Famer takes Howard through various moves in the low post, encouraging him to face up, shoot, use more ball fakes and spins — Olajuwon trademarks. (At 47, Olajuwon is in fine shape and looks like he could still run a quarter or two in the NBA.)
After working with Howard on a jump hook move, Olajuwon asks, "What is the counter of that move?"
Howard fakes the jump hook and makes a power move to the basket.
"He was shocked to see I could do all those things," says Howard, who went on to make at least 1,000 shots from in and around the lane for nearly two months. "He told me to keep doing the things I'm doing. Just add a couple of things, and it'll take your game to another level."
Van Gundy has noticed, and the Magic plan to run more post-up plays. "We're asking him to just make sure his effort and focus on defense and rebounding remains the same," Van Gundy says. "As long he does that, I have no problem giving him more freedom on the offensive end."
For nearly two months every day last summer, Howard says he made at least 1,000 shots from in and around the lane. It was a busy summer for Howard, the two-time defending defensive player of the year and four-time All-Star. He also went to India and China to help promote basketball and the NBA.
It became a profound summer. An Orlando-area woman with incurable cancer, Kay Kellogg, wanted to meet Howard before she died. He visited. A half-hour meeting turned into a two-hour conversation. She attended the Magic's preseason opener in the new Amway Center on Sunday.
"Just to see the way she felt when I walked through that door touched me," Howard says. "This old lady doesn't know me from Adam but from watching me on the court. She said, 'I can die now.' It inspired me to want to be a better person."
• NBA News Archive Index:
2010, 2009
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