Dwight Howard
Dwight Howard
Dwight David Howard is an American professional basketball player for the Atlanta Hawks of the National Basketball Association. Howard, who plays center, had an outstanding high school career at Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy. He chose to forgo college and entered the 2004 NBA draft, and was selected first overall by the Orlando Magic. An eight-time All-Star, eight-time All-NBA team selection, five-time All-Defensive member, and three-time Defensive Player of the Year, Howard has been ranked consistently as one of the best...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionBasketball Player
Date of Birth8 December 1985
CityAtlanta, GA
CountryUnited States of America
It's hard for me to block basketball out, but I'll try to stay away from it for a good month and a half. I expect us to be a little more serious, a little more business-minded next year. No team is going to give us anything.
Growing up, I played about every sport imaginable except soccer and hockey. I've always had a passion for basketball. I remember actually playing basketball when I was two or three years old. The time I knew that I could really take my game to the next level.
That's my job, to motivate people. I can do more, show people more things. That's really why I play basketball. That's my whole purpose of playing basketball.
The only way to shut people up is just by winning and just playing basketball.
I hated that perception that I didn't work hard, that I really don't love basketball.
You don't have to be best friends as basketball players but I do believe in chemistry. I think it makes everything different if a team is really together and they're all on that same page. They might not like each other, per se, but if you're on the same page and the chemistry is there, you can play great basketball. You can go back to teams like Detroit, the Bad Boys. Those guys had great chemistry, that's why they won.
Basketball has brought me a lot of joy, brought me a lot of good things. Just that side of it has really affected me.
I know you can't please everybody; you can't make everybody happy, but just getting that perception that I don't care about basketball and what it brings is a lie.
When I'm smiling and having fun, that's when you should have a problem. If I'm out there frowning and looking mean, that's when you know you've beat me - because I'm not having fun. I've been playing basketball since I was three. Everybody since I was three tried to tell me to stop smiling. Even my dad. My dad apologized to me when I was ten.
We felt we really beat them down tonight.
The season isn't over. Maybe a trade, maybe the All-Star break, something will jump-start us. Hopefully, the switch will come on.
We really needed a win tonight, especially on the road. My mind-set tonight was to really focus in on bearing down and getting a win. I wanted to do everything in my will to get that win tonight.
We can win games at home. But we seem to lose focus on the road.
We had a lot of careless mistakes but I think that our defensive pressure was not there the whole game. We gave them easy baskets on our turnovers and that's one thing our coaches have been impressing on us all year.