The Opening of my first movie “Just Wright” was last night. Queen Latifah, Common, and the cast really did their thang! I want to thank everyone that came out for the private screening last night. Special thanks to Coach Stanley (Van Gundy), my teammates, the local media and especially the fans who watched me debut “Dwight Howard the actor”. This movie had everything you look for in a movie and after you check it out on Friday, May 14, 2010 (Opening Day), you’ll agree also. With your support, this can be the # 1 Movie out. Well I’m going to get out of here. Make sure you take your family, your friends, your haters and neighbors out on Opening Day to see “Just Wright”.
Heyyyyy wooorrrrrlllddd!!! We bounced back from that Spurs loss with a pretty good win at home against the Memphis Grizzlies on Sunday. It was really dead and quiet in the arena until my boy, Matt Barnes, livened things up in the third quarter.
Matt got into it with Hasheem Thabeet and I think that sort of woke our team up. We were sort of sluggish to start the second half and that little fight he had seemed to spark us in a big way.
That Barnes-Thabeet cage match went pretty well for us. Matt got kicked out of the cage and sent to the locker room, but at the end of the night we won the Royal Rumble.
The Big Show (me) didn’t get a T. Ric Flair (Vince Carter) got a T. And Hulk Hogan (Matt) got kicked out of the steel cage match. Matt apologized to us after the game, but we all understood where he was coming from because we don’t take too much of anything personally on this team. We actually enjoyed that little pushing match and it fired us up.
As for the game, I’ve got to admit to ya’ll that it was another frustrating night for me. I made the same moves that I always make, but got three walks called on me. I’ve got to back and study the films and see what I did wrong so I don’t get those travels called again.
I’m trying not to get frustrated and let it affect me out there on the court. But as of late, things on the court have been very frustrating out there for me. I’m kind of worried about how things are going for me before the playoffs, but I just have to keep playing and not let anything that happens dictate a response from me.
On a positive note, we have now beaten every team in the NBA this season and we’re the only team to do that. Our coach put that on the board before the game to try and fire us up and that’s certainly something to be proud of.
We’re just a game back of the Lakers in the standings, and hopefully we can pass them so that if we meet again in the Finals, we would have homecourt advantage here in Orlando. Of course, we’ve got a lot of basketball to play between now and then, but I really like how we’re coming together as a team.
‘Shard is shooting it great now, Vince is playing the best he’s been all season and guys like Brandon Bass, J.J. Redick and Ryan Anderson are doing well off the bench. I knew it would take some time for our team to come together, but we’re gelling good now. I really think we’re ready to go into the playoffs and do our thing.
Well, I’m gonna get up outta here. Five more games and then the playoffs start. They can’t get here quick enough.
Heyyyyyyy wooorrrrrld!!! We finally got a day off on Monday, but ya’ll know how hyper I am and I have all of this energy, so I tried to make the best of my day off.
The folks from Gatorade came to O-town on Monday and we went down to Amway Arena and shot some commercials that will be coming out during the playoffs. We actually shot three different commercials. Having shot a couple of roles in movies and more than a few commercials, I kind of knew what to expect. But it was a shock to some of the new people on the set.
It took about seven hours to shoot the three commercials!!! How crazy is that??? Some of the dudes there were worn out by the end of the day!!!
I’m trying to keep the commercials top secret, but I can tell you guys that my boys Jameer Nelson and Matt Barnes got to be in the commercials during the basketball stuff on the court. It was so cool getting to have my guys in there with me and we had so much fun during the shoot laughing and cutting up.
We also had The Big Show in the shoot. Well, it was actually Matt Geiger, but he looks like the Big Show cause he’s 7-foot tall and he’s got that shaved head and a goatee. He was a funny guy too. I guess he had to retire from the Sixers cause of a knee problem, but he lives over in Clearwater now, not far from O-town.
Coach Stan was there too … well, it was a dude who looked like Stan. Actually the coach in the commercials looks like that guy from Bay Watch, David Hasselhoff I think is his name.
I wanna be kinda hush-hush about what went on the commercials so ya’ll will have to tune in to see everything that happens, but I can tell you that they are some cool commericals. But I did wanna give you a few tips so you could watch out for them.
I think the commericals are dropping in May during the playoffs. So hopefully your boy will be splattered all over the TV in May during the playoffs.
We’re on national television the next two nights against the Spurs and Heat, so all of my lil homies around the country can watch us play. We’re starting to really mesh well and get that chemistry that we need for the playoffs. So check us out on ESPN and TNT and hit me back on here and in Twitter and Facebook land and tell me what you think about our squad right now.
Heyyyyyy wooorrld!!! Now that’s what I call a big win!!! Hope y’all all got to see it ‘cause it was a loud and rowdy at Amway Arena as it has been all season. It felt like last May and June in the playoffs with the noise and the way the players were going at one another.
We needed a game like that to sharpen our focus for what we’re about to face in a month in the playoffs. That was two great teams going at it hard. It got nasty and physical, but hey that’s how it goes in the playoffs. It just comes down to your will and refusing to lose.
Since I’m a dog lover, I’ll break it down for you this way: You had a team of pit bulls (us) and a team of cane corsos (da Lakers), and that’s what happens in a game like that. It gets nasty with claws flying and dudes biting and scratching and scrapping. We’re the pit bulls cause pit bulls are a little shorter and cane corsos are a little taller. But hey, we kept scrapping and we got the job done.
Plus, we had heard some yapping from the Lakers that we were considered “puppy dogs,’’ so that gave us a little more motivation. We had to show them that we had the fight and the bite of an alpha dog.
I’ve got to give it up to my man Matt Barnes, who fought Kobe Bryant tooth and nail all afternoon. We don’t win that game without him getting into Kobe and keeping the pressure on him all day. He was contesting shots, fighting for rebounds and he made that huuuuuuuuuuge 3 late in the game to put us up by six points.
And what can I say about my main partner, Jameer Nelson??? That dude is playing so well lately, and that’s a big reason why we have been better. The lil’ man is just fearless driving down the lane and getting on the boards.
‘Meer was the second best rebounder in the game, second to yours truly of course. I gotta say this, ‘Meer is the best dwarf rebounder in the NBA today!!!
I’m so proud of how we kept scrapping and didn’t fold. We knew we’d get the Lakers best shot ‘cause they had lost their last two and they came at us hard several times. But we did what championship teams do – they fought back and fought back again.
I know everybody out there already has the Lakers and Cleveland in the Finals again, and that might be who everybody in America wants to see. But we might have something to say about that again. When we play our brand of ball like we did on Sunday, we know we’re capable of beating any team in the league.
Now, we’ve just got to maintain our intensity and close out the regular season with a hot streak. We want to hit the playoffs playing our best basketball and take no prisoners. That’s having that pit bull mentality and we’re starting to really get it.
Heeyyyyy World!!!! What ya’ll up to? We got another win last night, but now it’s back out on the road again. We were home for one game and now we’re off to the West Coast for like nine days to play four games. It’s all good though because we will get some time in Oakland/San Francisco and L.A., two of my favorite spots. But it’s a business trip, so we’re keeping that focus tight.
I couldn’t be happier with how we’re playing right now. We had some rough patches early in the season, but I wasn’t really worried at all. We had a lot of new dudes on the roster with VC, Ryan Anderson, B-Bass and Matt Barnes, so I thought it might take us some time to get the rotations down on defense.
But I really see us coming together now. We played really well out on the road last week, and I think we’ll do that again next week because we love being out on the road together. To us, being on the road is like being at home. We know to win in the playoffs you have to be able to win on the road.
I just get the feeling now that this team really wants to be great. Every day that we’re in the gym we’re going hard and doing what we can to get better. This team wants nothing but to be great. We’re improving in a lot of different areas and if we keep that up I think we have a chance to be really good again.
My main job as a captain was to make sure that we get better every day as a team. And I just feel like now that we’re doing that. We just want to make sure we peak at the right time. We’re taking all the right steps in the right direction to become a great team. But like I tell everybody, everything we do starts on the defensive end of the floor. The last eight games have been very good defensively and we’ve done a good job of taking care of every detail.
We know that we have that target on our back and everybody is trying to take us down. That’s why coming into games and coming into practices, we just have to go out there and do our jobs and be the best that we can. Every day we get in the gym we go hard and do what we can to get better.
That’s just something that I love about my team – that hunger to get better every day. And so far it’s working for us. I guess we have the most wins in the league at 15 and we want to stay on top for the rest of the season. We want to win our division, win our conference and get back to the Finals. And this time it’s all about bringing that gold ball home. That’s our one and only mission.
I’ll hit you guys back from the West Coast this weekend. Holla back at yo’ boy!!!
Heyyyyyyy wooorrrrrld!!! We finally got a day off on Monday, but ya’ll know how hyper I am and I have all of this energy, so I tried to make the best of my day off.