CHAPTER TEN CHAPTER TEN Dwight Howard’s rookie season was behind him, but that didn’t mean he hung up his sneakers. A few weeks after the Magic’s final game, Dwight flew to the Philippines for the fifth annual NBA Madness, an event aimed at celebrating basketball with the Filipino people. He found the international travel exhilarating but made sure not to let it overwhelm him. When not taking in the local sights, playing basketball, or meeting people in his host country, he spent time reading, praying, and lifting weights.
He visited Hong Kong and Taiwan for similar events, but by August, he was back home in Florida to prepare for the coming season. He had packed on an additional twenty pounds of muscle in the off-season. His increased power showed early in the regular season. In the Magic’s third game, he hit 17 points and made 11 rebounds, his first double-double of the season. Unfortunately, that third game was also Orlando’s third loss.
The team turned it around in the next match, when they squeaked out a 76–74 victory over the Houston Rockets. Dwight Howard earned his second consecutive double-double, with 12 points and 11 rebounds that night. He posted a third in the next game, another win for the Magic, with 16 points and 13 rebounds, and added a fourth in the game after that, with 21 points and 16 rebounds.
On November 15, Dwight Howard and the Magic played the Charlotte Bobcats and Emeka Okafor. Howard and Okafor had met on the court a few times in 2004–2005. But this was the first time they would face each other since Okafor had been named Rookie of the Year. Basketball followers anticipated a heated battle—and they were not disappointed.
The two rivals met for the opening tip-off. Howard won and cannoned the ball to Steve Francis. Moments later, he swished a soft eight-foot jumper for the first two points of the game.
The Bobcats now had possession. They put the ball in Okafor’s hands. He went up and missed! Dwight muscled in, nabbed the defensive rebound, and directed the play to the other end of the court.
Soon after that, Okafor fouled him. Dwight had spent a lot of time on his free-throw shooting during the off-season. That practice paid off now; he sank both shots. He added six more points in the following minutes, including a sweet hook shot from six feet out. He also pulled down six rebounds and helped out with an assist.
Emeka Okafor, on the other hand, had taken just one shot while committing two fouls. Of course, games aren’t decided on the efforts of just two players. If they were, the Magic would have ended the quarter far on top. Instead, they were down by one, 20–19.
They were behind for much of the second quarter, too, until finally drawing even. When the buzzer sounded at halftime, the score was knotted at 46 points apiece.
Orlando unraveled the knot after the break. Charlotte drew even again and again in the next twelve minutes but failed to recapture the lead. The last quarter sealed the Bobcats’ fate thanks to the outstanding play by Jameer Nelson. The sophomore guard came off the bench and made 11 of the Magic’s 22 points!
Dwight added 4 of those points, too, plus 5 boards. The Bobcats simply couldn’t withstand the Nelson-Howard one-two punch. Final score: Magic 85, Bobcats 77.
Dwight ended with an astonishing 21 points and 20 rebounds. He was only nineteen years old, making him the youngest player in NBA history to post a 20-20 game. That night was also his fifth consecutive double-double and his fourth career game of 20 boards. Any doubt that he had been the right choice as the first draft pick was laid to rest.
“Dwight played strong,” Okafor, who had 8 points and 6 rebounds, admitted after the game.
Howard’s teammates were a little more enthusiastic about his night’s performance. “He’s our Rookie of the Year,” said Tony Battie.
How did Dwight himself feel about his efforts? “I just wanted to get the win,” he told reporters.
In the weeks leading up to his twentieth birthday, Dwight got his wish for wins four more times. In each, he was the game’s high rebounder, three times with double-digit figures. But sometimes, even his best efforts failed to result in a win. On November 29, he pulled down 19 rebounds—and yet, the Magic lost to the Chicago Bulls 85–76.
From there, the Magic spiraled downward. By the end of 2005, their record had dropped to 12 and 15. The team appeared on the verge of a rebound in January, when it had a streak of five wins. But hope of a playoff berth dimmed again soon after, for they lost ten games in the weeks before the All-Star break.
Fed up, Orlando management made a flurry of trades. Midseason changes to the roster are typically done when a team realizes it has only a small chance of reaching the postseason. The hope, however, is that after a short adjustment period, the team will begin to win games again.
That’s exactly what happened with the Magic. They dropped eight of nine games right after the All-Star break, but then won ten of their next fourteen matches!
And the wins just kept coming. On April 15, Orlando won their eighth consecutive game, the thirty-sixth of their season.
That match, against the Philadelphia 76ers, saw Dwight Howard playing at his absolute best. How good was he that night? Here’s a small sample:
The 76ers were up by one with three minutes remaining in the game. Dwight was fouled. He made the first of two free throws, missed the second, grabbed his own rebound, and sank a hook shot from eight feet out. That was three points in three seconds for the lead!
He wasn’t done yet, either. Moments later, he ripped down a defensive rebound that Jameer Nelson converted for two more points. “It was the biggest play of the game,” Sixer Allen Iverson said later.
By night’s end, Dwight had chalked up 28 points, the most of any player that game, and 26 boards, the most of his career so far. To come close to 30 points or 30 rebounds in one game is amazing; to come so close in both categories is flat out unbelievable. That’s how good he was that night.
If the Magic could just win their final two games, they stood a chance of reaching the playoffs.
Unfortunately, they didn’t. Dwight played well in their next-to-last match, posting a game-high 14 rebounds and 22 points, but the Chicago Bulls ended their chances of a playoff berth once and for all by defeating them 116–112 in overtime. The final match, a loss to the Indiana Pacers, scarcely even mattered.
Dwight was very disappointed not to have made it into the playoffs. But rather than dwell on what might have been done, he focused on what needed to be done. More specifically, he focused on what he believed he needed to be doing to boost his own game—although a glance at his final stats shows that he was already doing plenty.
He averaged 15.8 points and 12.5 rebounds per game. His 1,022 total rebounds were the most of any NBA player that season, and they earned him a spot in the history books as the youngest person to reach that milestone. He also averaged 1.5 assists, 1.4 blocks, and 0.8 steals.
“That kid is a freak of nature,” Kevin Garnett said of Dwight. “I was nowhere near that physically talented.”
And yet, he wasn’t satisfied with his performance that season.
“Shooting, rebounding, strength, conditioning,” he told fans in an April online chat. “I need to work on my overall game…. I’d like to get better with my jump shot, and I’d also like to not turn the ball over so much when I’m double-teamed…. The Magic showed faith in me by drafting me number one right out of high school…. I’d like to pay them back.”
And so, true to form, Dwight Howard set himself a goal: to develop his entire game in order to give the Magic their best shot at the title.