Dwight Howard on James Harden: ‘I would never hate this man’
The Houston Rockets have been in a nasty place all season.
The training camp was a mess, former coach Kevin McHale was fired after a 4-7 start, and there have been incessant rumors that star guard James Harden pushed for that firing, wanted center Dwight Howard dealt; and that Howard’s thoughts toward Harden ran along the same lines.
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Unlike Harden, Howard will have a chance this summer to put his figurative money where his mouth is, possibly giving back literal money to head to yet another team as a free agent in order to chase whatever the heck it is that he’s chasing.
In the meantime, Dwight still thinks his Rockets can compete for a championship this year, even as it works with a .500 record entering Tuesday. He discussed this and many other things in a wide-ranging interview with USA Today’s Sam Amick:
“People feel … like we hate each other,” Howard said. “I have no hate in my blood for this man, you know? For what? He came from nothing. We both came from nothing. And we’re doing something that we love. We grew up playing this game for fun, and we had big dreams of making it to the NBA.
“So I would never hate this man because I know what it took for me to get here, and he made it. So I want him to succeed. I want us to succeed. Before coming here, I watched endless hours of YouTube videos on James Harden, before he had the beard. I watched all that stuff, because I’m like, ‘Dang, this boy, he’s got so much talent.’
There’s a bit of a difference between “not enjoying James Harden shooting his nearly eight (!) three-pointers a game at a sub-average 34.4 percent clip,” and actual “hate.”
Nobody ever claimed you “hated” James Harden, Dwight. You both can dislike playing alongside each other without the both of you concurrently hating each other. I hate playing basketball alongside my own brother, dude won’t move his feet, but I don’t hate the guy in real life (unless he starts talking about the deal he got on his “fully-loaded Ford Fusion” again).
Dwight Howard is taking 8.8 shots a game, the lowest mark since his rookie year (8.3) – when the poor guy had to play with Steve Francis. His usage rate, which approached LeBron-ish levels during his (probably shoulda been) MVP-caliber year in 2010-11, as dipped back into the teens. He’s shooting 61 percent from the field on his way toward 14.5 points a game.
As you well know, though, Dwight Howard is not an MVP-caliber player anymore. He often has to sit out games due to back and knee woes, and last December he turned 30. And, as it is with all the preps-to-pros veterans, that’s an old “30.” Howard has been banging since 2003, and has a season’s worth of playoff games to his credit.
To that same credit, Howard did acknowledge to USA Today that the game has changed to become more perimeter-orientated, but he also dropped this:
“You watch a guy like Shaq (O’Neal) or Kareem (Abdul-Jabbar) and all these guys, and I don’t know if they would want to just play with guys shooting threes and stuff like that. They want to be fed, but it’s the evolution of the game. And the way you stay relevant is trying to find ways to play without focusing on not getting the ball … I think it’s all just a mindset. Some teams are better at it than others.”
That’s just more of the almost-there Dwight-speak that we’ve become accustomed to. Even in eras that strained to feature low post play, Shaq happily handed the keys over to Dwyane Wade in O’Neal’s second year with the Heat at age 33, and Kareem did the same at a similar age with Magic Johnson after Magic had a few years under his belt.
For Howard to act in a similar fashion with Harden two years ago at age 28 would be pushing it, so it is understandable that there would be some chafing and possible regret behind moving to Houston in 2013 for Dwight.
Still, Howard’s max contract options weren’t all that great then; though it is ironic that his second best prospect (Dallas) is overachieving and tied with the Rox in the West. And we should all remind ourselves that while Harden can play at an MVP level when he’s engaged, he’s no Magic or D-Wade (at least not consistently). Dwight Howard, it’s safe to say, is a little less composed than Kareem or even Shaq.
The Rockets appeared to be doing everything right in going after stars, valuing key components (efficient scoring, versatility, interior defense) while hiring a whip-smart young basketball guy in J.B. Bickerstaff after the Player’s Coach hire didn’t work out. Everything gone right has gone terribly wrong – for the third straight team in Dwight Howard’s career.
He’ll get another chance for change that this July. Until then, let’s bash our heads against the wall as we chide ourselves for not recognizing L’affaire de Stickum so many years ago:
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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KDonhoops
