All Dwight Howard urges his doubters to do is this: look at the numbers. They tell the story, he insists. He averaged 15.7 points and 11.8 rebounds per game. Only 13 other players in the history of the NBA have posted those for a career.<\/p>\n
They all made the Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, why not me?\u201d Howard asked.<\/p>\n
He doesn\u2019t have to ask that question anymore.<\/p>\n
Howard \u2014 who is still upset, and some would say rightly so, for being left off the NBA\u2019s 75th anniversary team that was unveiled nearly four years ago \u2014 wasn\u2019t snubbed for the top individual honor that can be bestowed upon a player. He goes into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame this weekend, the capper to a career where he was an eight-time All-Star, a five-time rebounding champion, a two-time blocked shots champion and the only player to win defensive player of the year in three consecutive seasons.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m most proud of the fact that I\u2019ve had longevity, and I\u2019ve been able to play as long as I\u2019ve been able play and stay as healthy as I have,\u201d Howard said. \u201cAnd I want people to say that one thing about me is that I was always going to put my best foot forward, 100% effort. They can say, \u2018No matter what it is, he\u2019s going to put in everything he has.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Howard is one of two dual-enshrinees this weekend; he and Carmelo Anthony are both going into the Hall of Fame for their individual achievements and again as part of the 2008 U.S. Olympic basketball team dubbed the \u201cRedeem Team\u201d after winning gold at the Beijing Games that summer.<\/p>\n
Also entering the Hall this weekend: women\u2019s basketball greats Sue Bird, Maya Moore and Sylvia Fowles, Miami Heat managing general partner Micky Arison, longtime NBA referee Dan Crawford and Chicago Bulls coach Billy Donovan \u2013 a winner of two NCAA titles when he coached at Florida.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a great class,\u201d USA Basketball men\u2019s national team director Sean Ford said.<\/p>\n
Howard is 10th on the NBA\u2019s all-time rebounding list, 13th on the list of blocked shots. He\u2019s one of four players with three DPOY awards, behind only four-time winners Dikembe Mutombo, Ben Wallace and Rudy Gobert. And he got his lone NBA ring in 2020, when the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Miami Heat in the bubble finals.<\/p>\n
Only one other player \u2014 Elvin Hayes \u2014 finished his NBA career averaging as many points, rebounds and blocked shots as Howard did. Blocks didn\u2019t become an official stat until 1973, but regardless, the numbers showed Howard was a lock for the hall in Springfield, Massachusetts, to call.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was absolutely ridiculous that he didn\u2019t make Top 75,\u201d Stan Van Gundy, Howard\u2019s longtime coach in Orlando, said when that 75th anniversary team was released.<\/p>\n
Howard and Van Gundy didn\u2019t always agree. On this point, they\u2019re in lockstep.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was wondering if I was ever going to get into the Hall of Fame after the Top 75 thing, because it just seemed like, as far as my basketball play, I haven\u2019t really received that much respect from my years in the league,\u201d Howard said. \u201cIt was a little difficult. But then once I got the call, I was like, \u2018Wow, this is here.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The 75th anniversary team snub might come up in the speech that Howard is planning to deliver this weekend. If this speech goes like the one he gave earlier this year when he was inducted into the Orlando Magic Hall of Fame \u2014 he spent his first eight NBA seasons with the Magic, hardly missing a game after they took him No. 1 overall in the 2004 draft \u2014 expect some laughs and some tears. Howard doesn\u2019t mind showing his emotions.<\/p>\n
The Hall didn\u2019t make him wait, either. Howard was voted in during his first year of eligibility.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s happening. It\u2019s me being in the Hall of Fame, being inducted in the Hall of Fame as player and then being inducted into the Hall of Fame as an Olympian,\u201d Howard said. \u201cIt\u2019s just like a double whammy, but in a good way.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All Dwight Howard urges his doubters to do is this: look at the numbers. They tell the story,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265374,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3779],"tags":[7,44296,48,736,19149,1407,6,47,76,3883],"class_list":{"0":"post-265373","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando-magic","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-ben-wallace-basketball","10":"tag-magic","11":"tag-men","12":"tag-naismith-memorial-basketball-hall-of-fame","13":"tag-national-basketball-association","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-orlando","16":"tag-orlando-magic","17":"tag-orlandomagic"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115142787399874444","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}