Dwight Howard is absolutely always in a good mood. The first thing he did when he walked by was ask everyone why they were so quiet and tried to get everyone excited. He is exactly what this city needed and if you look at Stan Van Gundy’s comments that were posted earlier, you can see just how important Dwight has been to the community. He is turning into a larger than life figure with his commercial video game covers and movie roles and it couldn’t have happened to a better guy.
On his new teammates
"Me and Jameer know how to keep our teammates in line. I don’t think we’re going to have a problem, especially with these guys. Matt Barnes is a great guy. Brandon Bass just wants to work hard. And you know, Vince is Vince. We’re not going to have any problems. Vince is just an all-around scorer. He doesn’t need a screen. He doesn’t need any help to put the ball in the basket – he’s that talented. He’s an offensive weapon. He does what he does. He gets the ball in the fourth quarter."
On what he thought about this offseason
"Them celebrating on our home court. Knowing that we were three wins away from the championship…every day I think about it."
On if he watched them celebrate to keep the loss fresh in his mind
"I did. I’ve done it before. The only thing that does is push me to work even harder every day in practice, every day in the summer I’m working out. Days where I don’t feel like going to the gym and I want to take a rest… it just motivated me to get up and to get in the gym."
On doing things purposely to keep it in his mind
"I don’t have to do anything purposely. It just happens. Everywhere I go, I hear somebody say something about the championship. That just drives me to want to win. Knowing that we were so close to something that all of us always wanted our whole life…"
On how Courtney Lee took the trade
"Well, he’s still hurting, but like I told him, it’s a business and he’ll always have friends in Orlando. New Jersey wanted him so he has to go there and play. He can’t focus on being traded. It’s over with now, but he just has to go there and play. This is a great opportunity for him. He’s on a young team and if he wants to be a great player in the league, he has to take that and run with it."
On his dreams of being in the NBA
"It’s a blessing. This is something that I’ve always dreamed of. Having a life like this, being able to do something I love for life, it’s unbelievable. Being able to be a role model to younger kids is something I’ve always wanted so I’m happy. There’s a lot of ups and down that come with it but it’s a blessing. It’s just something God has blessed me with."
On Jameer Nelson and if he’s worried about returning to his All-Star form
"The way he got to that level was because we won games and he sacrificed and that’s what it takes. He’s not worried about getting to the All-Star game, he wants to get back to the championship."
On having a target on their back
"We’re still underdogs.It doesn’t matter if we want to embrace it, that’s the role we’ve been given."
On using their game 5 loss as fuel much like the Lakers did last season after losing the Finals to Boston in game 6 the year before
"I told the guys that last season we had a great run but this is a new team. I want our guys to sacrifice, give everything that they have. We want to get back to the finals."
On the lack of Finals experience from the new additions
"We didn’t have any experience last year, but the reason that we were able to be successful was that we believed no matter the situation was. I think as a team, with the new guys, we just got to show those guys what it takes. Every day in practice, we come out and we give 100%. We have to show those guys that this is the reason why we were able to get where we were last year and they’re going to do the same thing, they’re going to fall in line. I believe we have a great team – we have a team that can win the championship. It’s going to take us coming together, listening to coach and understanding that whatever he wants us to do, we have to do it."
On being the leader
"That’s basically been my job since I came here…not just lead but lead through example every day in practice."
On the new players and Stan
"They’ve heard about Stan. They know that Stan’s a little wild. He has a wild side I would say but they also understand that the only reason he coaches is that he wants to see the best out of his players and he’s going to get on us, he’s going to push us, he’s going to make us mad but Stan, if there’s one thing he’s great at, it’s knowing how to push you. He makes you mad, but he’s pushes you to a point that you want to get mad, but you do what he says. He knows how to coach. He knows how to motivate guys."
Eddy Rivera asked Dwight about the lack of respect for the Magic
"We don’t play for respect. We want to be the best. We want to win the championship."
On the roles in the offense
"We all have our roles. If you want to get into the roles, our coach has a list of roles. I’m pretty sure he’ll give them to you and it talks about what all of us have to do on the team. Vince understands his role and all of us have to sacrifice. Nobody has to score 30 points for our team to be successful. It’s all about defense and that’s the way we want to win."
I think the finals loss to the Lakers gave Dwight an even bigger will to win. You can tell that his statistics and awards are meaningless in his pursuit of the team’s ultimate goal.
(Andrew Melnick is Howard the Dunk’s lead blogger. Subscribe to his RSS feed and add him on Twitter to follow him daily.)