by Marcel Mutoni / @marcel_mutoni
Last summer, NBA fans — ones in Orlando, especially — were thrilled to discover that Dwight Howard was taking lessons from Hakeem Olajuwon. Already considered the best center in the League, by a wide margin, Howard went to the ultimate master of the post game to hone his craft.
It resulted in a wonderful season, where Dwight Howard averaged the most points of his career (22.9 ppg), looked more comfortable and fluid in the post than ever before, and drew very serious consideration for the MVP award.
Dwight and Hakeem are back in the gym this summer, working together again.
Per the Orlando Sentinel (via Howard’s Twitter account):
Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard is training again with former NBA great Hakeem Olajuwon and says he’s working on shooting more and on raising his notoriously poor free-throw shooting to above 75 percent. In messages back and forth with some of his Twitter followers, Howard said he’s in Houston working with Olajuwon for the second consecutive summer. Asked whether he’s working on his outside touch, Howard responded that he is working on becoming “more complete” as a player.
Howard currently is spending five days working with Ojawuon. One of Howard’s Twitter followers wrote to Howard that shooting more and an improved free-throw percentage were the two things missing from Howard “winning MVPs” and “leading the Magic to a championship.” “This yr shoulda been mine,” Howard responded.
This is terrific.
Just make sure Stan Van Gundy doesn’t find out about any of this, everyone.
