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
This was a little bit of payback for me. The first time we played against them, they did a pretty good job on me. I wanted to come out and get some payback because I don't feel like I played well in the first game.
It's not good to lose a big lead. We've got to bury teams when we get 'em down. This is like the second or third time where a team has come back and we had to make an extra push to win the game. When we get teams down, we've got to keep 'em down and not let 'em come back.
I've got some work to do. We all do. We've got some time. This will be a good team. We've just got to get it all together.
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.
We're gaining a lot of confidence in each other, in the new offense and with the coach. Things are looking pretty good for us right now.
The biggest thing is always being around people that are going to lift you up and not bring you down. That's why I prayed for God to send me some good friends. He's done that. I don't really have a lot of friends, but the friends I do have are great.
Basketball has brought me a lot of joy, brought me a lot of good things. Just that side of it has really affected me.
Coach is going to have our backs, good or bad, and I think guys appreciate that. It feels good that your coach is sticking up for you, letting them know how you feel. But at the same time, we need to just play the game instead of complaining and whining about the calls.
I was just trying to make a play for my team. The last thing Randy (Magic assistant coach Randy Ayers) told me was to make a play. I just wanted to get down and play good defense.
Our coach said before the game, we got three good teams coming up in Miami, Dallas and San Antonio. We want to go out and try to beat all three teams. We started off tonight with a good win.
That sent us off on a good note. Even the coaches are smiling lately. It's good to see old, grumpy men smiling.
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.