" I hate losing – especially to the Hawks"

[PureGreatness]

Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard was visibly dejected after Saturday’s 103-93 loss to the Atlanta Hawks, sitting slumped in his chair and staring at the ground while the media was around.

Despite his 46-point scoring outburst, Howard’s team didn’t come close to beating the Hawks in the first game of the playoffs.

And the loss hurt even more because it came at the hands of the Hawks, a team the Magic have dominated in years’ past.

“I was mad because I hate losing – especially to the Hawks,” Howard said on Sunday after practice.

When asked what exactly he meant by saying “especially to the Hawks,” Howard didn’t expand.

“Come on, you know the answer to that,” he answered.

Later in the media session, an Atlanta-based reporter asked again why a loss to the Hawks hurts more than losing to other teams.

Howard responded sarcastically, saying, “Uh, it’s my hometown team.”

Anyone who’s spent any time with Howard knows that isn’t why he hates losing to the Hawks. It could have something to do with Josh Smith and Josh Powell — both childhood friends of Howard’s — playing for Atlanta, but it’s not even that. No, it’s more psychological than that.

If you ask me — and I acknowledge that no one actually did — Howard especially hates losing to the Hawks because they don’t have his full respect. Howard doesn’t enjoy losing to teams such as Boston and Los Angeles, but at least those teams are filled with NBA champions and future Hall of Famers. When it comes down to it, he can live with losing to winners. But the Hawks? Their best player is Joe freakin’ Johnson, their second-best player was the second-best player on Howard’s AAU team (Smith) and their third-best player is a jump-shooting, soft-spoken big man who Howard routinely pulverizes (Horford). That’s not a collection of players Howard is OK losing to.

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/sports_magic/2011/04/dwight-howard-hates-losing-especially-to-the-hawks-video.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sports%2Fmagic%2Fbasketblog+%28Magic+BasketBlog%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

Edited April 18, 2011 by hoodstar

[APE]

Someone who gets their name in the dunk conest doesn't have my respect.

[Admin]

Wow that is some serious disrespect from Howard there! I sure hope that the team, especially Joe and Josh, get a chance to hear about or read this.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard was visibly dejected after Saturday’s 103-93 loss to the Atlanta Hawks, sitting slumped in his chair and staring at the ground while the media was around.

Despite his 46-point scoring outburst, Howard’s team didn’t come close to beating the Hawks in the first game of the playoffs.

And the loss hurt even more because it came at the hands of the Hawks, a team the Magic have dominated in years’ past.

“I was mad because I hate losing – especially to the Hawks,” Howard said on Sunday after practice.

When asked what exactly he meant by saying “especially to the Hawks,” Howard didn’t expand.

“Come on, you know the answer to that,” he answered.

Later in the media session, an Atlanta-based reporter asked again why a loss to the Hawks hurts more than losing to other teams.

Howard responded sarcastically, saying, “Uh, it’s my hometown team.”

Anyone who’s spent any time with Howard knows that isn’t why he hates losing to the Hawks. It could have something to do with Josh Smith and Josh Powell — both childhood friends of Howard’s — playing for Atlanta, but it’s not even that. No, it’s more psychological than that.

If you ask me — and I acknowledge that no one actually did — Howard especially hates losing to the Hawks because they don’t have his full respect. Howard doesn’t enjoy losing to teams such as Boston and Los Angeles, but at least those teams are filled with NBA champions and future Hall of Famers. When it comes down to it, he can live with losing to winners. But the Hawks? Their best player is Joe freakin’ Johnson, their second-best player was the second-best player on Howard’s AAU team (Smith) and their third-best player is a jump-shooting, soft-spoken big man who Howard routinely pulverizes (Horford). That’s not a collection of players Howard is OK losing to.

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/sports_magic/2011/04/dwight-howard-hates-losing-especially-to-the-hawks-video.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sports%2Fmagic%2Fbasketblog+%28Magic+BasketBlog%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

I'll give you a +1, because I think that's exactly what it is. He probably gets ragged on from his boys from losing to the "lowly Hawks". . as ESPN used to call us back in the day.

Orlando had dominated us for 2+ years, so I'm sure he doesn't respect us at all. Add to the fact that when he was a teenager, the Hawks were sorry, and he probably never even rooted for the Hawks, despite us being the "hometown team". Not only does he not have our respect, he's probably always rooted against the Hawks.

[Admin]

Actually Howard was a big Hawks fan back in the day and really wanted to play for Atlanta when he was drafted.

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/sports_magic/2010/11/dwight-howard-tough-on-hometown-team.html

Atlanta native Dwight Howard grew up as a Hawks fan, even getting to know some of the players as the town’s high school star. You just wouldn’t know that Dwight likes ‘em by the way he’s treated the Hawks on the court.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

OK . . I stand corrected then.

[AHawks89]

AKA Dwight want's to be an Atlanta Hawk. You can call me crazy, but if we win I think our fans should chant, "Come home Dwight", in the play offs. I really think that will get him thiking about. If we can just chant that, we'll be good. Only bad thing is...I'm not sure how it will work. Dwight wants to play with Josh, but Josh is our best trading piece. I don't want to get rid of Josh at all. I hope he stays an Hawk for ever.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m737rbTyYN0

Edited April 18, 2011 by AHawks89

[Deeman]

I think he hates losing to us because of Smoove to be honest.

[bird_dirt]

AKA Dwight want's to be an Atlanta Hawk. You can call me crazy, but if we win I think our fans should chant, "Come home Dwight", in the play offs. I really think that will get him thiking about. If we can just chant that, we'll be good.

THAT would be BRILLIANT. think of what a mind twist that would do to orlando's best player. i think the fans should do that to him DURING the games. he probably would be so confused he couldn't bring his best game, and leave town with more thoughts of "what if..." not to mention give ASG even more prompting on what the ticket buying masses would like for them to do.

Edited April 18, 2011 by bird_dirt

[Joker]

THAT would be BRILLIANT. think of what a mind twist that would do to orlando's best player. i think the fans should do that to him DURING the games. he probably would be so confused he couldn't bring his best game, and leave town with more thoughts of "what if..." not to mention give ASG even more prompting on what the ticket buying masses would like for them to do.

He should only do that at the end of the series when we got it wrapped up. Let's remember the Hawks players want the fans support and that isn't really helping them persay. I don't think we will get Dwight due to other things but CP3 is extremely possible.

[macdaddy]

To me the difference between Dwight and Smoove is Dwight is gigantic and can dominate easier because of that. They are both immature. We rag on Smoove all the time for questionable judgement and mental mistakes but Dwight doesn't show professionalism or leadership on or off the court. He leads the league in techs despite the fact that he's allowed (much like shaq was) just to push him man out of the way on his way to the basket.

It makes sense that the refs don't have any favoritism for him because of all the techs but then again SVG didn't seem too worried about him fouling out while he played the whole quarter with 5 fouls.

[buckeye242424]

I think he hates losing to us because of Smoove to be honest.

I agree with this. They're best friends, best man at Smoove's wedding. That's competition on whole different level.

[Bawse]

I think he hates losing to us because of Smoove to be honest.

Yeah, it has something to do with it i'm sure. These guys are best friends and i'm sure they talk on a regular basis. I bet Smoove had to hear a heap of s*** last season.

[AHF]

Like some of the others, I don't take this as a sign that he doesn't respect the franchise. This is his hometown team which makes it more like a rivalry game for him - he has a lot of friends who are probably still Hawks fans and want to give him #$#$ for losing to the Hawks so it means more on a personal level to beat the Hawks than it does to beat...say...Milwaukee or Cleveland or New Jersey. Then you layer in the fact that he is close friends with Smoove and likely has relationships with other Hawks and there is more of a personal aspect to it than beating say Ray Allen and Paul Pierce.

I also think it is a good thing that he gets emotionally up for the Hawks more than other teams as far as our chances to get him in the future. We certainly are guaranteed nothing but at least we are an elevated spot on his radar.

[Diesel]

I love the idea of the come home Dwight Chant. If we win games 2 and 3 and game 4 is in Atlanta, i would start the chant at the beginning of the third qtr... With Signs and Tee Shirst if you can get it. Nothing like a sweep to make a passionate player think about changing sides.