Dwight Howard and the National Media

Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

You can see it every time the Houston Rockets are playing on TNT. You can see it in every snarkyESPN.comarticle that J.A. Adande puts out. And at this point, I’m pretty sure it might be a pre-requisite to ever be hired byGrantland.com.

Chances are if you’re from Houston,youknow what I’m talking about.

For some unknown reason(s), it always seems likeDwight Howardnever gets a fair shake in the media outside of H-Town. They call him immature and say that his game has slipped. That he’s no longer the player he used to be. That he can’t win a title because he’s too busyfarting during practice. Chief among them, is that he just doesn’t care about winning.

Butwhy?

Last season, everyone knew that Howard was playing hurt. Every radio host knew that Howard’s relationship withKobe BryantandMike D’Antoniwas strained. And everyone (sans Lakers fans) agreed that if Dwight Howard wanted to prove that it was all about basketball and winning, he should choose Houston in free agency because that was his best shot.

And the sad thing is he proved that the pundits wereright.

Howard is happier in Houston. He’s taken a team that won 45 games last season and has given them a realistic chance at matching (and/or surpassing) thefranchiserecord for total wins in his first season. But for reasons unknown, the national media doesn’t care about wins added anymore. They don’t care that he took $30 million less to play in a new city. Or, that the team he left has completely fallen apart since last year and is openly tanking for the #1 draft pick.

That doesn’t matter tothembecause the bias still exists.

Mar 16, 2014; Miami, FL, USA; Houston Rockets center Dwight Howard (12) dunks the ball against the Miami Heat during the first half at American Airlines Arena. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

Even though, if it were anyone else, they would have championed the player that sacrificed money for a better shot at a ring. Orbrushed it under-the-carpetif it was a star point guard. Or evenlooked the other waywhen a player “Chris Brown’d” his girlfriend (allegedly). But I can tell you this, if Howard would have accepted the extra money from Los Angeles; he would have been chastised even worse if he stayed on that 22-46 Lakers team. I don’t hear any negative commentary about former champion and NBA All-StarPau Gasolthis season?

Where’s thecriticismandanimosityfor them?

Recently, Bill Simmons called-out Dwight Howard on theABC/ESPNpre-game show “NBA Countdown” and on his website fornot being able to step upin the games at Oklahoma City and Chicago.However, he completely forgot to mention the Miami Heat game where Howard finished with a 21/14/5/2 game. Or, that he had 17 points and 12 rebounds while adding three blocks in theextremelycrucial game against Portland a few nights before that. Nowhere did he mention that Howard has been out since those games with an ankle cyst and managed to play through the pain with no excuses.

So what doweknowwehave?

An All-Star, who plays through pain, took less money, added more wins to his new team; all-the-while leaving his former team in the lottery. It certainly seems like he made the right decision to me. The Rockets have the same players as last year, only adding Howard (andJordan Hamilton), and they’re a half-game away from being the fifth best team in the entire league, record-wise.

Efficiency-wise, the Rockets are 3^rdin the league on offense. Defensively, they’re 10^th.Have you seen the Rockets’ perimeter defense???I’m positive that adding a three time Defensive Player of the Year and the league leader in FG% this season (min. 650 attempts) only increased those numbers. But yet, here’sESPN InsiderBradford Doolittle givingJoakim Noahthe “NBA’s Best Center” crown even though the Bulls are 8.5 games behind the Rockets andRed94.net’sMichael Pinaabsolutely destroys that argument; including this little side-by-sidecomparison of the two.

It’s time forCharles Barkleyand Shaq to stop asking Howard to post-up more; he’s the third highest scoring center in the league and happens to be the most efficient at it. And it’s time for the entireGrantlandstaff to stop taking shots at him, because he’s taken a playoff team and made them better. And finally, it’s time the national media stop bashing Dwight Howard because of personal vendettas and agree that, on-the-court, he’s still the best Center in the league.

Or at least that’s what thestatssay…

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