Shaquille O’Neal has had a spiteful relationship with Dwight Howard over the years. Although Dwight reached his peak when Shaq had stepped toward the decline of his, the latter was always jealous of the 3x DPOY. The Diesel has a notion that Howard is overrated. However, Jason Williams, who played with both of them in their primes, thinks otherwise.
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Almost all throughout his 18 years in the NBA, Howard couldn’t get O’Neal off his back. He is now oceans away in Taiwan and still, The Big Aristotle never leaves an opportunity to grill the 6ft 10in big man.
And because O’Neal’s opinion means so much in the NBA community, many fans have forgotten how terrific Dwight actually was. “White Chocolate” is here to remind us of that.
Former Shaquille O’Neal teammate, Jason Williams says, “We Will Never See Another Dwight Howard”
In a recent episode of All The Smoke podcast, Stephen Jackson and Matt Barnes brought in Jason Williams, aka White Chocolate. Former Magic forward Barnes, talking about the 09′-10′ season, asked his Orlando teammate to give his two cents on Howard’s lack of respect in the NBA community.
Williams, who also played with O’Neal in Miami where they won a championship together, answered it honestly.
“There are not too many guys that I have seen play better than Dwight Howard. What he brought to the table, like what he did, man, you’re not gonna see another Dwight Howard.” White Chocolate said without hesitation.
Now, he might have to explain himself to Shaq when he meets the big guy next time. But for now, he said his piece to let us know that most of the things O’Neal says about Dwight are mostly out of jealousy for stealing his ‘Superman’ tag.
Young Dwight Howard was a problem!
Coming into the league as a fully built center at the age of 19, Dwight dominated the paint from Day 1. Although he was not as good as Shaq offensively he was otherworldly on the defensive side of the ball game.
In his prime, he averaged well over 22 points, 14 rebounds, and 2.5 blocks per game. The 8x All-Star made 5x All-Defensive teams and lead the league in rebounding 5 times, and twice in shots blocked! Talk about a resume.
NBA’s “most dominant big man” on the other hand, had 3x All-Defensive team selections and no rebounds or blocks title. Given the fact that he had 3 inches on Howard, this probably could have been the reason for his jealousy. A nickname, as good as it was, can’t be it.
