CHAPTER FOUR CHAPTER FOUR Dwight Howard continued to spark interest in the last weeks of June that summer. But it was in the second week of July that his name became the one on every basketball recruiter’s lips.
Dwight was in New Jersey for the prestigious adidas ABCD camp. Founded by Sonny Vaccaro, the man known for matching star players with sneaker companies, the camp sought to bring together talented high school players, respected college coaches, and NBA scouts.
In going to the ABCD camp, Dwight Howard was following in the footsteps of some very famous players. Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, and Kevin Garnett had all risen to superstardom at the camp. All three had also made the jump right from high school to the pros after their outstanding performances at the ABCD camp.
Knowing this, Dwight set himself a single goal for the days ahead: “Total domination.”
He dominated, all right, impressing campers and recruiters alike from day one.
“He’s a beast,” one camper exclaimed. “It’s like his hands are webs or something.”
“He just looks like somebody who’d kick everyone’s butt,” a recruiter raved.
The week of camp ended with the traditional Senior All-Star Game between the Black and Gold squads. Dwight, playing for the Black, helped his team win the contest 165–153 by ripping down nine rebounds. His shooting for the evening wasn’t great, but that didn’t stop recruiters from top colleges from talking to him. Dwight was willing to listen and even stated that he’d like to win the NCAA championship someday.
But he made no promises to anyone because with each passing day, his lifelong dream of going straight into the NBA was closer to becoming a reality.
Immediately after the ABCD camp, Dwight was reunited with the Atlanta Celtics for the adidas Big Time Tournament in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Big Time was exactly as its name implied—BIG. Four hundred teams, or an estimated 5,500 athletes, played a total of 996 games on thirty courts. The teams were placed in one of four divisions: Open, A, B, or C. Of these four, the Open Division was the top-ranked. The Atlanta Celtics were in this division.
The Celtics went undefeated throughout the opening days of play. But of course, as they advanced up the ladder toward the championship game, the competition grew tougher.
The Atlanta Celtics were pretty tough themselves, however. Dwight Howard, Josh Smith, and Randolph Morris played together like a well-oiled machine. Like Howard, Smith and Morris were both going into their senior year of high school; like Howard, they were very tall, standing at six feet nine and seven feet, respectively. Together, the threesome made a formidable front line that devastated the opposition.
Their first game in the final round was against the Connecticut Select. It was no contest: After thirty-two minutes of play, the Select were headed for the showers, having lost 93–68.
Next up were the Rotary Select I from the state of Washington. They fared a bit better against the Georgians, but still lost 87–73. The Atlanta Celtics had made it to the championship game!
Their opponents were the Michigan Mustangs. The Mustangs were a solid team, and at first, it looked like the match was going to be close all the way.
It wasn’t. The Celtics pulled away in the seventh minute and never looked back. Sparked by phenomenal shooting and rebounding efforts from Howard and Smith, they drove their lead up to 15 points by halftime. The Mustangs simply couldn’t stop them. Final score: Atlanta Celtics 85, Michigan Mustangs 65.
“This is a tremendously special group of guys,” Celtics coach Karl McCray enthused after the victory. “We have never had a more talented group than this one.”
Strong shooting certainly played a huge part in the Celtics’ victories. But defense was just as important and there was no one better than Dwight Howard. In the three-game championship round alone, he came down with a rebound an astonishing 31 times, or an average of just over 10 boards per game! Smith was strong in that stat category as well, with 18 boards in the final three games. In recognition of their performances, Howard and Smith were jointly awarded the Open Division Outstanding Player Award.
Howard, Smith, and Morris continued to play well in the final weeks of the summer competition. At the Best of the Summer Tournament in Los Angeles, California, they helped the Celtics romp past seven teams before, disappointingly, falling in the semifinals. Exhaustion may have played a part in that loss. Dwight recalled phoning home and saying, “I just want to get back to my own bed.”
The loss hardly detracted from the impression the Atlanta Celtics made overall. “The best summer team I’ve ever seen,” one college coach said.
And the best of the best that summer was, hands down, Dwight Howard. He’d set out to dominate, and he’d succeeded. But would that success carry him to his ultimate goal, namely, to be the number one draft pick of the NBA?