Friday, April 3rd, 2009 at 10:00 am  |  57 responses

The Reason Dwight Howard Won’t Win MVP: He’s Too Tall

by Marcel Mutoni

You could list any number of reasons why Dwight won’t get his hands on the League’s highest individual honor this season, and none of them would be as brilliant as the one his assistant coach, Patrick Ewing, provided when asked for his opinion on the award.

Perhaps getting it confused with the Dunk Contest, Ewing seems convinced that Howard’s physical appearance is working against him in the MVP voters’ minds. From Florida Today:

Patrick Ewing has a theory on why Orlando Magic do-it-all center Dwight Howard isn’t mentioned as a leading MVP candidate: He’s a big man.

“I think it’s because he plays the center position,” said Ewing, a Hall of Fame center with the New York Knicks and now a Magic assistant coach. “You guys look for that flash and dash. All the other guys who are in the race are all small guys. He’s a big guy who should be in there.”

Despite getting a record 3,150,181 votes to lead this season’s All-Star team, the Magic feel Howard has been getting an MVP snub. “He’s having an outstanding year,” Ewing said. “He should be definitely in the MVP race. Nobody’s really talking about him. He should be right up there with Kobe, LeBron and Wade.”

Of course, it goes without saying that throughout NBA history, big men have more or less dominated the award. Nice try, Pat.

Anyway, some midget from Cleveland is going up against the gigantic Howard tonight in Orlando, something you might want to tune in for.

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  • Lenny

    O YA P.S. Howards a beast! crazy skillz best big in the league but mvp no. he would have to ave a triple dub to win the mvp with all the kobe and lebron @ick riders all over the world

  • giogolo

    Lebron’s gotta redeem himself with the 40..er 27? pt. loss..

  • Manumaniac

    Dirk Nowitzki is taller though… Anyway, I believe that Dwight Howard is having an amazing year and he deserves to be mentioned to that MVP conversation. I don’t say that he should win the trophy (obviously Lebron, Kobe and Wade deserve it the most), but he should definitely be mentioned among MVP candidates.

  • Manumaniac

    Nate,
    Don’t agree with you and here is my point. Remember the Bulls of the 1995-96 season right? Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Ron Harper and Toni Kukoc could be starters for any other playoff team that time. Does this mean that Michael Jordan wasn’t the MVP of the NBA back then? I don’t think so…

  • Manumaniac

    You can also check the Phoenix Suns back in the 1992-93 season. They had All Star caliber players like Kevin Johnson, Dan Majerle, Cedric Ceballos and Tom Chambers, but that doesn’t mean that Charles Barkley didn’t deserve to take home the MVP award that year. The same goes for Magic and Bird back in the 80′s. They both had All Star guys on their sides, but they still won multiple MVP awards.

  • stokes

    Nate- Truthfully O’neal started on a few different playoff teams in his career and could start a few now. He might produce big numbers every night, but besides the superstars of those teams who does. Truthfully Lebron should have won one already. Before Mo got there he had no one. Wally is streaky, Z is old, Ben can’t shoot, Delonte didn’t become the player he is until this year. But I think it is a toss up between lebron an D-wade. Just depends on who votes and what criteria they use.

  • stokes

    he might not produce big numbers, forgot the word no

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