When the NBA released its list of the Top 75 NBA players of all time, it was surprising to see Dwight Howard’s name missing from it. Many fans and analysts at the time questioned the legitimacy of the event because of it. The selection was something that Dwight still feels slighted about to this day.
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That’s why when Howard joined Shaquille O’Neal’s podcast, it was one of the things he wanted to talk about. Shaq was one of the players Dwight looked up to as a kid, so getting his approval seemed to mean a lot to him. The two were also the most prominent big men in Magic history.
“Do you have any questions for me?” Shaq asked.
“Yeah, I do,” Dwight responded. “As far as everything that’s been going on with the top 75 and stuff like that, do you feel like I was a little disrespected?”
Despite being an eight-time All-NBA member, an eight-time All-Star, and a three-time Defensive Player of the Year, Dwight missed out on the NBA Top 75 squad when it came to the selection process. It’s something he expressed disappointment over at the time. Dwight believes the decision happened because of “politics”.
“Of course you were,” Shaq stated. “But, again, I felt you should’ve played a certain way and a certain style. And the unfortunate thing about you and your career is you got caught right between the middle end of your career, and the new beginning of this new shift.”
Shaq then explained that Dwight and only a few other old-school centers were still in the league by the end of his career. At that point, the pick and pop had taken over, and centers could shoot. This made Dwight’s game somewhat outdated.
Shaq also mentioned that Howard could’ve done a better job marketing himself during and after his career. After all, his career ended overseas, and he’s been caught up in lawsuits since retirement.
But Dwight said that he thought he did all he could with his Superman persona. All in all, he confessed that he felt hurt. So, Shaq gave him some tough love.
“Who gives a f**k about what they say? Let me tell you something about life. You should only care about your mother, your father, your brothers and sisters and your beautiful kids, and your wife. All these other motherf**kers, they don’t care about us. They don’t give a f**k about us.”
It was a real heart-to-heart that Shaq and Dwight shared. And Shaq wasn’t afraid to speak his true feelings to Howard. Sometimes that’s exactly what some people need.
But at the end of the day, Dwight’s exclusion from the Top 75 players of all-time was ludicrous at the time and still is today. He was an imposing force on both ends of the court for the better part of a decade. Dwight also consistently took the Orlando Magic deep into the playoffs.
Yet, like Shaq says, sometimes you can’t care so much about what other people think about you. There is only a specific set of people that you should be worried about every day, and the media isn’t one of them. We’ll see if Dwight learns from Shaq and quiets down about the subject moving forward.
