Dwight Howard Says Top-75 Snub 'Was Upsetting'

[RealGM Wiretap]

In a wide-ranging interview where he discussed his love of roses, snakes and giraffes, Dwight Howard was also candid about basketball too. Howard said he was upset about not being selected to the NBA's Top-75 team.

"I think that what I have done in my career, there’s no way it cannot be recognized. It was upsetting, at first. But, I didn’t take it too seriously. I felt before that I wasn’t gonna be on it because it felt like (the NBA) was trying to phase me out. People think I’m trying to blame the NBA for certain things, but I look at how certain things have happened in my career and I know some of these things are not on me. I’ve watched how I rarely get talked about when they mention (the Lakers). It’s like I’m an afterthought. Like damn," Howard said.

Howard was consistently called out as the primary snub of those not selected. For his career, Howard won Defensive Player of the Year three consecutive times. He also made eight All-NBA teams, including five first-team nods. Howard has also made eight All-Star teams.

Via Tyler R. Tynes/GQ

[J-Mezzy]

I think he is right. He certainly has a better resume than Lillard and Carmelo

Not sure I’d say Anthony Davis has a better career up to this point either

[PerfectJab]

Add 14 consecutive double double seasons to his resume and the top 75 list is a joke.

To put things in perspective:
Tim Duncan 841
Karl Malone 814
Hakeeom Olajuwon 775
Dwight Howard 743
Kevin Garnett 742
Shaquille O'Neal 727
John Stockton 714
Charles Barkley 710
Patrick Ewing 580
David Robinson 544

[dougthonus]

It just depends how you want to do the list.

I look at someone like Dennis Rodman, and from a talent perspective, it's pretty insane he's on the list. If he doesn't join the Bulls, Dennis Rodman is like the 5th man on a couple Pistons title teams, tanked a Spurs team trying to win a title where they just wanted him off the team, and then would have dwindled into obscurity.

You put a prime Dwight Howard on those Bulls teams and they'd have kept the dynasty rolling for another 3 years

But part of the league isn't just about talent, and while Dwight's talent would put him there, his story isn't compelling. He didn't get to go join a couple superstars and win a bunch of titles as one of the key pieces. He instead did relatively little in Orlando then bounced around the league as a bad attitude guy before eventually settling in as a nomadic role player where he's rehabilitated his image a bit.

Rodman will forever be remembered as a much greater talent than he was because his story is so compelling even though he was a worse attitude guy and a far worse player, but through luck or whatever else, fate smiled upon him with a magical situation.

I think it's tough to compare Dwight to guys like Lillard or Carmelo, just totally different breeds of players, though I'd agree he probably belongs in there over Lillard who also hasn't done anything, but Lillard is probably overrated due to his skillset in the modern NBA and penalizing Dwight for the same. People aren't thinking of how dominant Dwight was in his era. In his peak, he was a top 5 player, Lillard has never sniffed that, could argue Carmelo has.

[Cassius]

As soon as every member of the first 50 was grandfathered in, the list became indefensible.

[chitownsports4ever]

He wasn't snubbed . He didn't take his legacy serious for a lot of years so no one else did either but now suddenly of course when its about to end hes worried about how he will be remembered. Don't try and cheat the game because you will lose every time.

[niha17]

hes not top 75 of all time not even close

[K3nny Pow3rs]

Dwight is the first center I select in my NBA 2k teams.
If you want offensive rebounding, dunking and defense, you choose Dwight, because nobody did it more athletically than Dwight.
Apart from scoring, he's the greatest center of all-time, and he'll give you 20ppg.

[31to6]

Dwight is the first center I select in my NBA 2k teams.
If you want offensive rebounding, dunking and defense, you choose Dwight, because nobody did it more athletically than Dwight.
Apart from scoring, he's the greatest center of all-time, and he'll give you 20ppg.

a man with 11 rings would like a word with you, sir.

[CobraCommander]

I think Howard is a snub but I would possibly snub him because he didn’t seem to take being great seriously - We all know the only reason why Kobe is great and Jordan is the greatest because they took potential and took seriously every game and every off season.

Howard is losing points based on what he could have been vs what he really did. It’s natural to not rate a lazy goofy soft guy as high as someone we thought wanted to be great and tried their hardest. Howard’s time with Kobe hurt his legacy

[CobraCommander]

Dwight is the first center I select in my NBA 2k teams.
If you want offensive rebounding, dunking and defense, you choose Dwight, because nobody did it more athletically than Dwight.
Apart from scoring, he's the greatest center of all-time, and he'll give you 20ppg.

You a E fan....which means you probably would recognize someone’s digital face before you would their real face. I got family like you....we saw JWall on the street and he didn’t recognize him because he doesn’t look like 2k Wall...

[GunnerWRX]

Is it the Lakers undermining him or the NBA undermining him? Seems like his disappointment should be towards the Lakers.

[Pickled Prunes]

It just depends how you want to do the list.

I look at someone like Dennis Rodman, and from a talent perspective, it's pretty insane he's on the list. If he doesn't join the Bulls, Dennis Rodman is like the 5th man on a couple Pistons title teams, tanked a Spurs team trying to win a title where they just wanted him off the team, and then would have dwindled into obscurity.

You put a prime Dwight Howard on those Bulls teams and they'd have kept the dynasty rolling for another 3 years

But part of the league isn't just about talent, and while Dwight's talent would put him there, his story isn't compelling. He didn't get to go join a couple superstars and win a bunch of titles as one of the key pieces. He instead did relatively little in Orlando then bounced around the league as a bad attitude guy before eventually settling in as a nomadic role player where he's rehabilitated his image a bit.

Rodman will forever be remembered as a much greater talent than he was because his story is so compelling even though he was a worse attitude guy and a far worse player, but through luck or whatever else, fate smiled upon him with a magical situation.

I think it's tough to compare Dwight to guys like Lillard or Carmelo, just totally different breeds of players, though I'd agree he probably belongs in there over Lillard who also hasn't done anything, but Lillard is probably overrated due to his skillset in the modern NBA and penalizing Dwight for the same. People aren't thinking of how dominant Dwight was in his era. In his peak, he was a top 5 player, Lillard has never sniffed that, could argue Carmelo has.

Yep, Rodman surprised me. Being an imprtant part of a couple of good teams doesn't make you great. People don't seem to like Dwight and a lot of people didn't like Rodman either, but people have forgotten that they didn't like Rodman.

Dwight is an eight time All-Star, eight time All-NBA, three time Defensive player of the year, five time all-defense... and then he got hurt. The fact that the majority of these comments are negative shows that people really haven't been paying attention to the game.

[K3nny Pow3rs]

Dwight is the first center I select in my NBA 2k teams.
If you want offensive rebounding, dunking and defense, you choose Dwight, because nobody did it more athletically than Dwight.
Apart from scoring, he's the greatest center of all-time, and he'll give you 20ppg.

You a E fan....which means you probably would recognize someone’s digital face before you would their real face. I got family like you....we saw JWall on the street and he didn’t recognize him because he doesn’t look like 2k Wall...

I only play ONE game per day, and its 3 minute quarters, and I turned off all the fouls so no stoppages.
So most of my basketball is real life.
But last year I played 8 minute quarters, still never played more than ONE game per day.

[ontnut]

I think he's right. For a while he might've been the second most dominant player after Lebron - arguably even more dominant than him. He has the prime stats to back it up. He didn't win, but it wasn't usually his fault - a lot of his teams were flawed. I'm not going to strike a guy down from being an all-time great just because he had unfortunate circumstances, or was a happy go lucky guy. 3 consecutive DPOYs man...that's uh, dominant, while also being a big time offensive force, especially on lobs, putbacks, and the boards.

[K3nny Pow3rs]

And Dwight carried Orlando to the NBA Finals, perhaps the weakest team ever to reach the NBA Finals, and they faced Phil Jackson/Kobe and didn't get swept.
In fact they eliminated LeBron (and the 66-16 Cavs) on the way....
Would Bill Russell have done any better?
Let's face it, Dwight is an American hero and a true legend.

[Hans1984]

I don't know why he's upset. Except in his Orlando years he just wasn't good enough and that's a long time ago. He simply doesn't belong there.