Dwight Howard isn’t trying to play like Hakeem Olajuwon.
Howard worked with Olajuwon earlier this week before taking a planned trip to Asia.
“It’s not about emulating Dream,” Howard said of the workouts, which also included Kevin McHale. “That’s the thing. We get caught up in comparing players, trying to do what this guys does just because you work with him. The thing is, when you workout with a guy like Hakeem or Kevin, you take away certain things. You don’t try to do everything they can do. I could workout with Michael Jordan, but I’m not going to be able to shoot the fadeaway like Michael Jordan.”
Howard pays close attention to Olajuwon’s footwork during drills.
“The biggest thing when we’re working out is I’m always watching his feet,” Howard said. “Today we were working on spin moves and I was doing a spin move with my left foot in the back and I saw him doing it with his right. So once I caught that, I adjusted. It’s little things like that where you see something and you put your own mix to it – that’s what makes it great.
“We’ve been working out for years and I’ve never tried to be Hakeem Olajuwon. We made jokes about the Dream shake – he’d call mine the milk shake – but I don’t want to say I’m going to be like Hakeem Olajuwon. The moves we’re doing and how we’re doing them, it’s not about doing it just like Hakeem or doing them just like McHale. It’s about understanding why and how you do certain moves.”
