I live in Orlando are and have had the opportunity to watch Shaquille O’Neal and Dwight Howard come, become superstars and ultimately go off to greener pastures, in both cases to the Los Angeles Lakers. When Shaq left there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth as it was clear that leaving with him were visions of the championships that he and Penny Hardaway would have brought us into the foreseeable future. When Howard left there was a sense of relief as the ongoing drama with the will he stay will he go, I want, I want, I want finally coming to an end.
Shaq had a unique characteristic that I never saw in Howard that will never be measured in statistics. He had joy! I had a chance in a fantasy league moment to play against Shaq once while he still lived in Orlando but after he had joined the Lakers. I formerly played basketball at Fisk University , am 6’6″ tall and had continued to dabble in the game in various leagues and lunchtime basketball at the YMCA. A much younger friend and employee who was a friend of Shaq called and invited me to play in a pickup game at the “big fella’s” house. I went expecting to find an outdoor court and instead finding a gym with the Shaq Centre logo and purple and gold mats on one end behind the basket should one run into the wall. The bleachers only went up a few rows and the floor length might have been only 90 feet or so instead of the regulation ’94 but I was impressed.
As we walked in there were sides being chosen and I immediately found myself guarding Shaq. He was about to undergo toe surgery and was pretty much just fooling around and not going inside which was just fine with me. We ended up winning the game with me making the final basket and my all time record vs. Shaq is 1-0 which will likely stand for all time. We lost the next game, (in which I attempted to guard Tracey McGrady and learned that I could stop him from doing nothing, he later snatched a rebound over me when I had position and he was well blocked out and I think he sped up my retirement from the game but that’s another story. I later played on a team with Shaq against McGrady where we won and Shaq fed me in the post against a much smaller opponent. When it was all over, Shaq spent time with his guests, and it was clear he totally loved the game of the basketball. He had won a couple NBA titles at that point but could still get excited by playing point guard and getting an assist. He was still a big kid even though endlessly scrutinized by sports journalists and the public. He was also a great team player and understood his role. He knew that he created more offense by kicking the ball back out on his first post attempt and the defense had to sag on him because no man could stop him alone. He might get the ball back even deeper on a re-post or give an open 3-pointer to the specialists his teams had for just that purpose. He was a superstar but he also knew his role. He was more of a co-leader that the leader on his championship teams but just as important he didn’t get in the way of winning. If winning meant giving Kobe Bryant the winning basket, that was more important than any personal issues.
Dwight Howard came up in a different era. The NBA has always marketed its stars and Dwight’s goal was to be an NBA superstar which is not the same thing as being a winner. He also bought into the hype that the team’s superstar is supposed to be its leader. When players come to the league out of high school, people typically wonder if they have the physical maturity to survive the grueling schedule and compete as teenagers vs. grown men. The lesser analyzed issue is whether they have the maturity to handle themselves given all the pressures suddenly thrust upon them. Dwight Howard isn’t the first to have struggled finding himself and likely won’t be the last. By some standards he has been extremely successful. He’s generally considered to be one of the two best big men in the league, he stars in commercials, has appeared in movies and is generally well liked. He has appeared in a single NBA Finals that his Orlando Magic team never truly threatened to win. The team built around him has a workable strategy, several 3-point shooters capable of punishing a team that doubled up against Howard in the middle. It would be unfair to blame that Finals loss on Howard because their point guard struggles played as much of a role, but winners find a way. Howard didn’t. It became clear during his last two years in Orlando, that Dwight had no joy! His off and on demands for a trade and strained relationship with his coach, the community and his teammates only hurt the team and his reputation. His trade to Los Angeles could be a fresh start but only if Dwight Howard knows his role. He’ll never be able to impose his will on a Kobe Bryant led team which is just as well because he has no real personal sense of direction. He thinks winning is an automatic result of greatness and has yet to grasp the sacrifice portion of the equation.
A title for Dwight can only come if he cedes leadership or develops it. He’s still young but neither seems likely. Shaq’s career has played out, he won 4 championships with a few other Finals appearances and has cemented his standing by becoming an analyst and demonstrated a greater understanding of the game than some might have suspected. Howard may have several more years and the expectations for any team with him on it will always be high. It’s yet to be seen if they will be fulfilled.
