This thread is a joke... Even if I don't like Howard, mainly for his goofy antics, I have to say he's probably one of the "un-dirtiest" dominant big men I have ever seen. Shaq in his prime was WAY WAY worse. Howard wouldn't have hit Big Baby's face if he hadn't been fouled by Nate Robinson. That's right, he was fouled. Look at the replay and show me where Nate Robinson touches the ball on that play. He hits nothing but Dwight Howard's arm...
Of course its a joke. It was started by a YOF fan who tried to disguise his Yao worship by calling DH of all people dirty and asking for his banishment. Just get over the fact that by virtue of health DH is twice the player Yao Ming is.
Ever since he spoke to Hakeem, he has been making an effort to dominate from the rebounding and defensive aspect of the game. He was doing that during the regular season, but not so much in the first 3 games. I remember Hakeem saying years ago, that a dominant center had to "punish" smaller, weaker opponents (not hurt them on purpose, of course)
I dont know about banned. But Howard's definitely been elbow happy this series. Ive just been baffled by the BLATANT one sided officiating. Perkins gets thrown out for walking away while Howard's giving players concussions. Wheres Donaghy when you need him
sooper sensitive? yep. i answered it for ya. you are welcome what did i say that is so offensive to you?
Agreed. Besides, Dwight takes more abuse than anyone else and stays poised throughout the game- never more than clapping in his opponent's face.
I said it in the other thread, he is definitely a dirty player although I don't think the concussion he gave Big Baby was on purpose. All you have to do is follow the guy's career to see that he loves throwing the elbow at defenders after a play is over and pretending like he just had his elbows up and was turning his torso. He also loves get his hands up high and slapping at people's faces as he boxes it out. He isn't the only one that does it but he is definitely becoming one of the worst offenders. What really bugs me about it is I get the feeling he is looking to hurt people at times and when those players take issue with it he goes into victim mode. Either man up or drop the dirty play.
Howard has a huge upper-torso and always keeps his arms up for rebounds and shot-blocking (like big men are supposed to). That makes his elbows dangerous, but it doesn't mean his dirty.
He also is pretty good at swing the arm after a play, like the shot he took on Rondo after the Lewis foul.
Yeah, he's dirty. And it's not the elbow to Big Baby I take issue with, or any other elbows for that matter - they're just a part of securing the rebound. If you watch him, he'll use his off arm to push the opponent to the floor as he's coming down from the apex of his jump. Then, without fail, he'll look elsewhere as if he doesn't even notice, which seems like a tell tale sign it was intentional. Just watch, he's done it to Paul Pierce several times, and it's totally blatant. And he's overrated. Hakeem would dismantle him.
by what logic or stats, aside from you always looking for a reason to downplay yao, do you get that from? with soft yao the rockets have been 2nd and 4th in defense the last 2 years and way better when yao was on the court versus off the court, so it would seem he has a huge effect on defense whether he's committing these oh so essential hard fouls or not. i'm guessing the magic have been better because they have had a significantly better offense which they have because they have a ton of shooters and several people who can drop 20 (even rashard) on any given night.
Plenty of players have huge upper-torsos. That doesn't excuse him holding his elbows up at or above shoulder level and doing the exaggerated, quick torso turns he does. He's basically swinging his elbow but instead of moving his shoulders he jerks his entire torso around to mask what he is doing. It wouldn't be so bad if he didn't do it after players or when the defender is clearly not going after the ball. That pretty much shows he is looking to deal out some cheap shots. It reminds me a lot of the the Kobe swing-the-off-arm at the defenders face move he used to do when shooting jumpers (until he got caught for it). It's a completely, unnatural motion that provides not result except to hurt another player who is unsuspecting.
