After dealing with nagging injuries the last couple of seasons, Dwight Howard had not been himself. Questions about his personality and whether he truly wants to be great were topics discussed daily the last couple of seasons. After a move to Houston via free agency in the NBA offseason, Howard is quietly having a good season this year for the 37-18 Houston Rockets.
An NBA All Star this season, D12 is averaging 18.7 points, 12.7 rebounds and 1.9 blocks, this year—pretty much matching career averages.
After LeBron James’ interview with NBA TV’s Steve Smith where James left Bill Russell off of his “Mount Rushmore” list of top NBA players, Mount Rushmore is a hot button topic of conversation in the NBA for the past week. Dwight Howard did not shy away from his list of the greatest to ever lace ’em up.
“So one day, me being up there—I’m gonna go with Shaq, Bill Russell, Kareem,” Howard told The Source.
No guards or forwards Dwight??
“I’m picking all centers, they’re taking all of the big guys off the ballot,” said Howard. “They can’t take centers off of Mount Rushmore. So this is my centers Mount Rushmore.”
Howard believes that a Mount Rushmore isn’t even suitable for centers: “You have to have a Wall of Bigs” he said.
“You gotta have Dream, [Hakeem Olajuwon] Wilt Chamberlain, Yao, Patrick Ewing,” he said.
The young Rockets core seems like a fun bunch that keeps Dwight Howard loose. Currently a third seed in the NBA’s Western Conference, Coach Kevin McHale’s Rockets, boast a core of Howard, James Harden, Jeremy Lin and Chandler Parsons. They’re a winning team on the low. “We don’t really like people to talk about us,” James Harden told The Source.
Apparently, gospel music keeps him loose too. Similar to Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson, who told The Source during Super Bowl XLVIII Media Day about his love of gospel music, Howard also gets his praise on before games. “When I’m having a bad day, I put some some gospel on,” Howard told The Source.
The Source: If you had a gospel playlist to get right before a game, who would you put on that list?
Dwight Howard: You gotta have some Kirk Franklin. You gotta have some Donnie McClurkin and you’ve got to have Forever Jones.
The Source: Any old school gospel?
Dwight Howard: You gotta take it way back with Helen Baylor. You’ve got to have Commissioned too, but you’ve got to have Fred Hammond by himself. Right now, my gospel music by itself is crazy!
In his return to Los Angeles on Wednesday, Howard scored 20 points, hauled in 13 rebounds and swatted 3 blocks in the Rockets’ 134-108 win against the Lakers. Let’s see if the gospel music and the core group of fun guys on the Rockets will help both Dwight Howard and his team in the second half of the NBA season.
