The Orlando Magic center had some interesting thoughts on being the reigning Defensive Player of the Year, playing defense in general, and what it would mean to win the award again. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum) I spoke briefly with Dwight Howard after Thursday night's game against the Dallas Mavericks and here's what he had to say.
On trying to win back-to-back Defensive Player of the Year awards:
"It means a lot," Howard said of the accomplishment."My first couple of years in the league I didn’t use all my defensive abilities. [Patrick Ewing] sat me down about two seasons ago and told me ‘you need to lead the league in blocks and rebounds and you need to be a bigger and better defensive presence for your team.’ After that I just tried to do my best and Dikembe [Mutombo] said the same thing. I just try to go out there and stick with it. Try to block shots, rebound, defend and help my teammates out."
On what it takes to be a great defender:
"Defense is all effort," Howard said."If you want to play defense and stop people, you will. If you don’t want to, then they’re going score every play. There's not really a technique you can work on, you just have to really want to stop people."
Howard is on the cusp of being the first player in NBA history to lead the NBA in both blocks and rebounds for two consecutive seasons. He's already only the fifth player in NBA history (Hakeem Olajuwon, Bill Walton, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and most recently Ben Wallace) to lead the league in both categories in a single season. Howard showed the Mavericks firsthand Thursday night just how good he is on the defensive end.
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