Thursday, January 6th, 2011 at 10:00 am  |  66 responses

SVG: Hakeem Got Too Much Credit for Dwight’s Improvement

by Marcel Mutoni / @marcel_mutoni

When footage of Hakeem Olajuwon going through drills with the previously offensively-challenged Dwight Howard surfaced, the basketball world went nuts.

Fans and media got even more excited once Howard’s game showed dramatic improvement after a few games, as everyone sung praises for Hakeem’s Yoda-like teachings.

Well, nearly everyone.

The always delightfully grouchy Stan Van Gundy thinks far too much was made of the Olajuwon/Howard session, and would like for his assistant coach Patrick Ewing to get a bit more credit for working with Dwight every day.

From FanHouse:

“This isn’t a knock on anybody, but Hakeem has gotten more credit for two hours than anyone I’ve ever seen,” Van Gundy said with very little prompting. “I mean, they were in a gym for two hours, three hours, and all of a sudden every shot Dwight makes is because of Hakeem.” Howard had 28 points Wednesday in a 97-87 victory over Milwaukee. He is averaging a career-high 21.4 points this season, confident enough to use a short jump shot instead of just bulling his way to the basket.

“Dwight has done a lot of work, and I’m sure Hakeem gave him some advice, but that’s just starting to annoy me. There is not anybody alive who’s turning somebody’s game around in three hours,” Van Gundy said. “Dwight has done a lot of work, and I’m sure Hakeem gave him some advice, but that’s just starting to annoy me.”

Van Gundy is right to a degree. It’s kind of like when Kobe worked out with Hakeem for a few hours a year before, and people acted as though Dream had re-invented his entire post game.

Olajuwon is undoubtedly a terrific teacher of the game. But I think it’s important to recognize the current players’ own efforts, to say nothing of the people they work with on a daily basis.

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  • http://stapledesign.com Spaceship Jay

    I must co-sign The Philosopher, again I don’t seem to be getting it. As a man and natural Straight-to-the-Pointer, it seems that 1+1 seems to have equaled….Wait for it….. 2.

  • http://slamonline.com Allenp

    Come on now.
    You don’t learn those post moves in three hours. Or a bank shot.
    Ewing clearly worked with Dwight. For whatever reason, Dwight didn’t use those moves much in games.
    I don’t know why. But, I saw the vids, Hakeem wasn’t teaching Dwight anything that was that new. But, he did spend a lot of time talking to him about attitude and mindset. Maybe that helped a lot, or maybe Dwight just felt ready to shut everybody up.

  • http://Philosophervision@blogspot.com The Philosopher

    2+2=4.

  • http://stapledesign.com Spaceship Jay

    ^HA! for the win.

  • Jagster

    Stan made sense, till he talked about giving Ewing credit. Patrick was there for years and got nothing out of Dwight. Patrick himself, didn’t have particularly great post moves, nor was he as similar to Dwight in body type as Olajuwon was. It was a natural conclusion that people were going to make.

    Screw Patrick! If he was that good, Dwight wouldn’t of went to him in the first place. That’s what the people in Orlando were clamoring about for years anyway (go see Hakeem). Obviously Dwight didn’t seem to have a problem with it (did yall see the videos), so why would Stan say this now unprompted? How stupid!!

  • Eddie

    I got suspended from my team last month cuz because I impregnated my girl and said it wasn’t mine. Still stand by it. Coach said it wasn’t good ethics. whatever. In any case, SVG is a undersized whiner.

  • http://slamonline.com JL

    that’s lame. apparently dwight benefited from the tutoring. all the previous years, all those training sessions, no improvement. and then all of a sudden he seems to get it and score better. sure hakeem didn’t raise him from childhood, but his tutoring session definitely gave him enlightenment.

  • http://sjfklfsl.com Jukai

    I was under the assumption that Hakeem worked a LOT longer than three hours with both Kobe and Dwight. Huh.

  • MikeC.

    Dwight definitely learned how to elbow dudes in the head from Ewing.

  • Tim

    1+1=10 in base 2

  • Justin

    JTaylor, Ewing’s post game consisted of a three step into the lane running (and I do mean running) hook/one handed shot and a turn around jumper on the baseline. A lot of times he got very (almost too) comfortable 15 feet out. Now, back in those days, outside of Hakeem and David Robinson there weren’t a lot of bigs who liked to play away from the basket and Ewing definitely had a decent jumpshot for a big man. I agree with whoever made the comparison to starting on the job, getting the basics down and then working over and over to get it right. It’s probably a combination of things. Hakeem knowing how to talk to Dwight and how to teach him some things and Dwight putting in the work to learn it. Maybe he’s just a better communicator than Ewing. And I love the Paul Bearer comparisons for SVG. Ooooohhh yeeesss!

  • tavoris

    is Dwight really scoring better? really? He looks like he’s (for the most part) doing the same things more often. Give the dude more than 8 shots a game, and he’s always been able to get u 20 a game.
    Olajuwon clearly helped with his confidence, but I don’t see ONE BIT of Olajuwon’s technique in Howard’s game.

  • Justin

    I don’t think it’s necessarily just technique tavoris. Yes, footwork was probably a good part of it but it sounds like Hakeem has helped him mentally with his approach as well

  • First & Foremost

    Dwight set the bar too high too early. The first half verse the Heat was his best 24 minutes and 1 technical EVER. Bank shot here, off the glass again there, beat the shot clock from 18 feet out, you you and you get some hooks too.

    They went on to lose the game but since then Dwight stopped showcasing that part of his game.

  • Mr McOvaChicken to you

    Dwight wants to play offence but the problem is he’s not offensively minded.

  • Pingback: SLAM ONLINE | » Dwight Howard Has Impressed Hakeem Olajuwon

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