Which is strange since he is known as a nice guy. I remember when Dwight came in the league he said ne never cursed on the court. He said replaced damn with darn. Obviously things have changed.
More than any player I've watched since Shaq, Dwight Howard gets hammered viciously more than anyone. After a couple of seasons, I knew he wouldn't keep up the nice guy routine and felt like it was just a matter of time before he exploded. The NBA is so pathetic in handling big men it is a crying shame. This season more than ever, Howard has resorted to making sure he dishes out a lot of punishment instead of just taking it. He now gets away with pummeling guys with his elbows on a regular basis. The beating he put on Nick Collison of the Thunder in an earlier game just blew my mind. I still think Howard is a nice guy, but at some point he has to react. It's ridiculous more flagrants don't get called against his opponents. A few weeks ago, JVG talked about how many consecutive fouls have been committed against Howard that weren't called flagrant. It was a ridiculous number. I'm not sure the NBA is going after him. I think it's more incompetence than intention.
when you are the biggest, baddest guy on the court, players will have liberty to play you more physical without having fouls called on them. JVG has harped on this for the longest time. he personally experienced it with yao. i don't think the refs or NBA personally are targeting guys like shaq, yao, or dwight because it is very hard to officiate big men. smaller guys get away with a lot more things. that's the the disadvantage. however, those guys get away with stuff too. overall, officiating big guys is hard. it's a tough job.
Yeah, that's right. But at some point they have to be blamed. Come on, you don't make calls like that. It is not fair, especially in the 4th quater. They refs are making at least a POOR job of officiating Dwight. It is not fair and it has to change. PERIOD
Most of what you say is true and I can accept big men being harder to officiate with more mistakes being made. That said, it is RIDICULOUS how bad the situation remains. To have a problem is one thing. For their to be no improvement is inexcusable. The status quo is not good enough. So, sorry, I don't buy it. If the refs continue to let Howard use his elbows as instruments to dish out retribution, one could argue that is the counterbalance. The best solution would be to call flagrant fouls when they should be called and call more fouls when Howard gets mugged instead of saying, "Oh, it's just too bad he's so strong". One of these days Howard is going to pull a Bill Cartwright/Karl Malone/Deke move and give someone a concussion (or worse). The refs have to be quicker with their whistle or it's inevitable.
