Even Dwight Howard has been on the wrong end of dunk.
That hasn’t stopped the Hawks center from making a career out of protecting the basketball rim.
As a rookie with the Magic, Howard famously was dunked over by Kobe Bryant. Those darn video clips last forever.
In his first game with the Hawks, the 6-foot-11, 265-pound Howard blocked three shots. It moved him to within one of 24th place on the NBA/ABA all-time blocked shots list, just behind former Hawks player Elton Brand.
Size is one attribute to shot blocking. A short memory is another.
“The other part of it is just trying to go after every shot,” Howard said. “You are going to miss some. You are going to get dunked on. You are going to get embarrassed some times. It’s all about what you do after it.”
Howard has 1,827 blocks as he enters his 13th season. He is the NBA’s active leader after Brand recently announced his retirement. Hakeem Olajuwon is the all-time leader, with 3,830 blocks.
Now with Howard in uniform, 12 of the top 43 (and eight of the top 30) shot blockers in NBA/ABA history have played for the Hawks. The list is Dikembe Mutombo (2nd), Tree Rollins (10th), George Johnson (18th), Theo Ratliff (21st), Moses Malone (23rd), Brand (24th), Howard (25th), Josh Smith (29th), Rasheed Wallace (39th), Billy Paultz (40th), Mark West (42nd) and Erick Dampier (43rd).
Sure, Wallace is included in the list. After all, he blocked five shots in his one game with the Hawks in 2004.
Howard said he studied greats such as Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain in honing his shot-blocking skills.
It will also help that Howard is now in a system that on defense centers on protecting the rim. He is a man in the middle the Hawks haven’t had in a number of years.
“He wants me to be aggressive, go after shots, change shots,” Howard said of Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer. “Everybody else on the team feels the same way. I have to protect the paint. We’ve got to be a good rim-protecting team without fouling. That’s what we’ve been working on every day in practice.”
Budenholzer agrees with the simplistic notion that size and strength are important keys in a player’s ability to block shots. But there is more.
“Sometimes it is (as simple as size and strength),” Budenholzer said. “Probably if you make it into the top 43 you also have a little bit of instinct and commitment to being great defensively. I think he understands how important having a good team defense and having good rim protection is to being a good team. He has made it part of his identity from the beginning. When you put that kind of commitment to that kind of physical gift, then you are going to end up a great shot blocker.”
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