Dwight Howard, Stop Smiling

Dwight Howard, stop smiling. You are the most dominant Center in the NBA. Coaches devise game plans and complex schemes to construct your downfall. Teams grant their bench warmers playing time for the sole purpose of deliberately fouling you. Point guards are told you can’t control the ball, so they swipe and slap your hands at any dribble attempt. You are alone in the paint, every single one of your teammates is positioned outside of the 3-point line, patiently waiting for a pass. All rebounds, and all blocks fall into your hands. Your responsibility is enormous. Referees are constantly being reminded to call offensive 3-seconds on you. Your opponents draw offensive fouls by flopping. Your frustration satisfies your foes. Dwight Howard, you are alone, why are you smiling?

If anything can limit the vast potential of Dwight Howard, it may come from an unlikely source. Elite NBA players are competitive, and anyone sporting a different logo is an adversary. Super Man’s benevolence and naïve character may be his kryptonite. He sometimes acts as if he is still on Team USA overseas. Howard fails to realize the most basic reality, that the best NBA players are fierce competitors. Friendships are pulled aside when a championship is at stake.

The nasty and ferocious competitive nature of Kobe Bryant makes him perhaps the most feared athlete in sports. NBA players who share a similar competitive approach include LeBron James, and Kevin Garnett. All of these competitors are willing to do whatever it takes to get a win. They establish a tough presence, and get into their opponents face when needed. This idea rarely crosses Howard’s mind.

Dwight Howard can certainly be more intense, or at least more emotional. The “good boy,” image is possibly caging the beast within him. Dwight Howard was recently seen chuckling and mingling after a loss, with friends of the Los Angeles Lakers. The game was televised nationally, and Howard’s actions were embarrassing. When in the history of mankind did you ever see Kobe Bryant or LeBron James joking after a loss? I understand the NBA is a fraternity of talented ball players, but the desire to win is a reality. Getting into an altercation with an Olympic or All-star teammate is not uncommon, especially when both athletes are competing against each other.

Howard has been easily frustrated this season. An avid Christian, Howard was recorded at a Pistons game saying someone would get “get F***** up” down low, if they kept fouling him. His technical fouls are at an all-time high. His toughness and aggression isn’t earning him these tough-guy brownie points, it’s his complaining.

Howard simply needs to act his size. An obvious enforcer statistically, Super Man just needs to get angry. After a dunk, why not yell and show a mean-face. Get angry. Instead, Howard just smiles and points to the passer. When he blocks a shot, why not scream, intimidate, and look thoroughly offended that someone tried to score in the paint. Instead, Howard pretends nothing happened and emotionlessly awaits the next defensive possession. When Howard’s team loses to another elite team, why mingle after the game? Just leave to the locker room, get livid, or at least show some grief. That is what competitive athletes do when they don’t win. There is no joking matter.

In the NBA Finals, Kobe Bryant ripped the ball out of Dwight Howard’s hands, and flared an elbow towards his face. Howard came up to Kobe in kinship, Olympic-teammate form, and asked, why did you do that? Kobe Bryant, aware of what was at stake, replied, “shut the f*** up and play ball.” Until Dwight Howard can get into Kobe's face, show more aggression, or fierce competitiveness, his potential will be capped. Howard’s muscles resemble that of a pit bull, however if Howard doesn’t get meaner, he and the Magic will be the poodles Paul Pierce so avidly twittered at the start of last year’s finals.