Dwight Howard Focused On Winning, Says Carmelo Anthony Needs To Do ‘What’s Best For Him’

Dwight Howard is getting pretty good at saying the right things. In an interview with USA Today, he touched on what will soon be the Carmelo Anthony/LeBron James free agency saga. He hardly denied his interest in teaming up with another star player in Houston, but says it’s not his main goal right now.

Q: What now, then? You think you can convince LeBron to come your way?

 

A: A lot of people have talked about it, but right now my job is to come in here every day and get better and help these young guys grow. That’s what I’m doing every day. I want to give those guys (who can be free agents) time to think. They just got finished playing. I know LeBron is really hurt right now. I didn’t even think about (calling him). I’ve talked about it before, but the main thing right now is making sure I’m (keeping) these young guys in line.

 

Q: What about ‘Melo?

 

A: I haven’t spoken with Melo personally. I know this is a time for him when he has to really just focus on what’s going to be best for him. And I really believe that in this point in Melo’s career, he just wants to win. He’s done everything – we both have that kind of same mentality to where all the individual accolades, we’ve got them. We’ve got a gold medal, he has been in tops in scoring for a while, but those are all individual things. I think at this point he just wants to win, so it would be great to have him here because I know what his focus would be. It’s up to him, where he’s at in his career. But I want people on my team who are all about winning. That’s my focus.

 

One thing he said in an interview a long time ago, I think my first or second year in the league, I remember him saying that if he could play with one guy in the league he would play with Dwight Howard, so you never know. You never know what could happen. Right now, I don’t know, but for Melo’s sake I just hope he goes somewhere where he feels like he has a chance to win and be successful for the next four or five years of his career.