March « 2009 « The Official Dwight Howard Blog

Archive for March, 2009

I WANNA ANSWER YOUR QUESTIONS

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009

We here at dwighthoward.com want to bring you closer than ever to the NBA’s most dominant center and give you an inside peek at Dwight’s deepest thoughts on basketball and life away from the court.

So with that in mind, Dwight will answer questions from his fans on a daily basis. You give us the questions for Dwight and we’ll get the answers from the Big Fella himself. Please submit your questions to questions@dwighthoward.com and we’ll find out the answers.

Anyone who knows Dwight knows that he’s all about having fun and keeping things light, so the wackier the questions the better. Nothing is off limits here, so hit us up.

Want to know what Dwight eats before games to keep his energy up? Want to know about the workout regime that gave Dwight that strapping, muscular physique? Curious as to Dwight’s favorite NBA city or his top vacation hotspot? Or maybe you are wondering which impersonation is Dwight’s favorite to perform?

You give us the questions and comments and Dwight will answer them. We’ll feature a couple of question-and-answer bits here at dwighthoward.com a couple of times a week and have some fun.

Thanks so much for being a loyal follower of Dwight’s new site. And Dwight looks forward to fielding your questions and bringing you closer to his life on and off the court.

Tags: Dwight Q&A
Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments »

EMOTIONAL NIGHT FOR ‘ZO

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009

My coach, Patrick Ewing, has told me a lot of stories about Alonzo Mourning, and ‘Zo was one of the big men who helped when I was first coming into the league. He gave me advice on how to approach the game of basketball and life, and I’ve always admired the way he played the game.

Me and all of my teammates were talking before the game and I had to get out there at halftime to see if ‘Zo was going to cry. We all figured that ‘Zo was going to shed a few tears because he was always such an emotional player. He did cry, but it’s all good. He’s really led the way for a lot of young big men who have come after him. I appreciate everything he’s done for me and for the game of basketball.

Watching the event at halftime, I was even getting a little bit teary-eyed, just seeing how emotional it was. It was a special night for him and I was happy that we were there to witness it.

Seeing that No. 33 go up in the rafters, made me think about my own career. Hopefully, one day after a long Magic career I’ll have my jersey retired, too. It’s a long way off and it’s just a dream, but that has to be the coolest feeling ever. I can see it now, No. 12 going up as the fans cheer. How cool would that be?

I got my 5,000th rebound Monday night, and I give credit for that to God for keeping me healthy throughout my five-year NBA career. It’s an honor that I’ve been able to accomplish what I have.

The most important thing of the night was that we beat Miami again and stayed ahead of the Celtics. We feel lie we’re going to have to win the rest of our games if we want to get that No. 2 seed and also get our goal of 60 win s. I think we can do it, but we’ve got a tough grind ahead of us.

OK, I’m out. Take care everybody. — DWIGHT

Tags: 2009 NBA Season, Alonzo Mourning, Dwight Howard Blog, Miami Heat, Patrick Ewing
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

I’M SEEKING PERFECTION

Friday, March 27th, 2009

I’m somewhat of a perfectionist in everything I do, whether it’s my tie perfectly matching my shirt and jacket or my play on the court. I can have a 20-point, 20-rebound game, but if I miss a few free throws or turn the ball over too much then I’m not entirely happy with my effort.

I want to be one of the best big men to ever play the game, and that can’t happen if I settle for second best at anything. I expect myself to be aggressive and compete at the highest level every night.

That’s why even though I was really happy with the Boston win, I’m kind of disappointed how we ended that game. We a lmost lost a big lead in that game. They came back from 16. You play a good team like that, you get them down, you have to bury them.

We’ve got to have games where we let good teams know we’re for real. You do that by putting them in the hole and keeping them there. We gave Boston life. We’ve got to bury teams.

That’s important as we go down the stretch of the regular season and into the playoffs. We want to go into the postseason playing our best basketball. That’s how we’re going to win a championship.

Starting tonight with our game against Milwaukee, we can’t let teams off the hook when we have them down. We have to bury them. That’s kind of what we did to the Bucks last week in Milwaukee and we need to do it again tonight. We have to have that mindset the rest of the way.

Beating teams and keeping them down, that’s how we are going to earn the respect that we deserve. That’s how teams are going to see that we are for real. We have to prove it every night we step on the floor.

Wish us luck. Peace. — DWIGHT

Tags: 2009 NBA Season, Boston Celtics, Dwight Howard Blog, Milwaukee Bucks
Posted in Uncategorized | 11 Comments »

MY MIND WAS ON CELTICS ALL DAY

Thursday, March 26th, 2009

When I woke up Wednesday morning the first thing I thought about was how physical Boston was going to be and what I could do to not get involved with all the pushing and fighting. I tried to keep a level head, smile everything off and it actually felt good to play that way.

Marcin Gortat and I had an inside bet that if I talked to the refs more than five times in the game that I had to take him out to dinner. I only got to four with the refs, so it was a pretty good job by me.

I wasn’t fighting with the refs and I was just focused on playing basketball. The game is not always going to go the way that I want it to, so I’m just focusing on playing basketball and having fun out there. I’m happy with the way we played as a team, and the way I kept my cool.

We got a big, big win against the Celtics and we really needed it. It allowed us to win the Southeast Division and it helps us get closer to possibly getting the No. 2 seed and winning 60 games. We’re getting another banner for winning the division, but it’s that big championship banner that I want so bad.

Knowing how the Celtics were going to play me, I tried to be really assertive on the defensive end and on offense I was trying to attack the glass on every play. I knew they were going to push me a lot and I wasn’t going to let it stop me from going to get the ball.

I told myself all day long that Boston is going to be physical and they are going to fight and hold. I had to ask myself: Can you withstand all of that pushing and fighting and keep playing basketball? You have to be able to overcome that. It’s all about how you respond to what they are doing that matters most.

The playoffs will be the same way if we get to play Boston again, and I really think we will. It will be physical, and because they are the champions, they will be allowed to play physical basketball. Going into a series with them we know we have to withstand the pushing and fighting.

That was a really good game for us, beating Boston the way we did. It should show us that we can beat any team as long as we play our style of basketball. You have to have that kind of confidence because if you don’t believe in yourself nobody will ever believe in you.

I’m happy with this win, but we have to keep it up now. We have 11 games left and all of our goals are still within reach. We want to finish strong, and hopefully we can bring that championship home to Orlando when all is said and done.

Peace. — DWIGHT

Tags: 2009 NBA Season, Boston Celtics, Dwight Howard Blog, Marcin Gortat
Posted in Uncategorized | 13 Comments »

BIG GAME TONIGHT VS. BOSTON

Wednesday, March 25th, 2009

Obviously tonight’s game against the Celtics is a huge one for us. We’re tied with them in the loss column and they have two more wins than us. We need to beat them to get a tie in the season series, which would help us if we finish tied at the end of the regular season.

Our goals are to win 60 games (which would be the most a Magic team has ever won) and get the best seed that we can. We hope to get the No. 2 seed ahead of the Celtics, but to me it really doesn’t matter who we play in the playoffs because it’s about us. If we take care of us and do what we’re supposed to do, we’ll be just fine.

We want to play well against the Celtics because we’re still looking to earn the respect we think we deserve. We’re maturing as a team. A lot of people have counted us out the past few years and we feed off of that as a team.

We’re getting better and hopefully one day we’ll get respect around the league. What it is going to take is us demanding respect from every team that we play. I like what we have here on our team. There are a couple of areas that we have to work on to make us a great team, but we’re making those steps. Sometimes you have to crawl before you walk.

Maybe a big win against the Celtics will give us the respect nationally that we feel we deserve. Wish us luck.