Stan Van Gundy: Dwight Howard Criticized Too Much

Dwight‘s coach once again goes to bat for him in the press, wondering why his guy supposedly gets nitpicked more than any other superstar in the L. The Orlando Sentinel reports: “There’s little question Dwight Howard is the best center in the league and one of the league’s most dominant players along with LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, Kevin Durant and Chris Paul. But there’s one discernible difference between Howard and those other guys, if you ask Stan Van Gundy: Howard gets criticized much, much more. His free throws. His perceived lack of a low-post game. His foul trouble. His turnovers. Many are fair criticisms — some, maybe not. But they’re always topics of conversation in the national media. ‘There’s more negative said about him than any of the other top guys,’ Van Gundy said. ‘He’s won as much as much of those guys, his team’s have beaten those teams head to head, and yet they find a lot of negatives. I don’t hear the negatives on LeBron James and Dwyane Wade. I don’t. But I hear the negatives on Dwight. I don’t quite understand why that is.’ Van Gundy continued about why Howard is targeted more than those other guys. ‘Maybe it’s a size thing. Maybe people are harder on that. But he’s a guy who clearly is the best guy in the league at his position, and has been. He’s still very young, he’s improving, he’s won, he’s a damn good person … I don’t understand why there are so many negatives on him in comparison to the other guys. I’ve always felt since I’ve been here that he’s taken more of a hit than the other people.'”