One might not find him on the list of NBA’s Greatest-75 players of all-time, or in an NBA team right now, but Dwight Howard unarguably is a Future First Ballot Hall of Famer.
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Coming in as the #1 overall pick in 2004, just a year after the most hyped NBA Draft ever, Howard did significantly great for a 6’10 old-school center coming into the league which was in transition to become a league of forwards and guards.
And throughout his career Shaquille O’Neal, for some reason, was his biggest hater while that man with all his heart just wanted to be like his Orlando predecessor from the 1992 NBA Draft.
Dwight Howard never understood Shaquille O’Neal’s hatred towards him, he just wanted to be him
Howard vividly remembers why and how he wanted to dominate the league. And it was precisely how Shaquille O’Neal did it.
He told the story on Shannon Sharpe’s Club Shay Shay podcast while showing his disbelief at how Shaq has disrespected him over the years.
Dwight is right. The Superman title wasn’t Shaq’s to steal, so the hate was unnecessary and maybe just came off from the fact that O’Neal’s former teammate Kobe Bryant didn’t like Howard either.
Also read: Orlando Magic Big Paolo Banchero Joins a “lean and mean” Shaquille O’Neal on This Elusive List
After playing 18 years in the league, Dwight did most of the things Shaq did but failed to lead any of his team to a championship, as The Big Diesel did with the Lakers, leading them to three Championships while winning 3x Finals MVPs.
However, Howard did win a championship with the Lakers in 2020 when he was well past his prime but still was an important contributor to his team that was led by LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
Dwight did become the next Shaq in Orlando
His Magic Career, although significantly longer than Shaq’s stay with the club did go in a similar way the way it did with O’Neal.
While in his prime, making multiple All-Star, All-NBA, All-Defensive First Teams, and winning three DPOYs, Howard led his Magic team to an NBA Finals in 2009 upsetting major contenders along the way like LeBron James’ Cavaliers.
But he lost the Finals to Kobe Bryant’s Lakers due to the big-game inexperience of his squad much like O’Neal’s Magic lost it to Hakeem Olajuwon’s Rockets in 1995.
Unlikeliest way to follow your idol, wasn’t it?
He did follow Shaq’s suit and joined teams that could offer him more money and a squad that needed just him to win championships. But too didn’t work out the way it did for O’Neal.
