Dwight Howard: 'You can’t win three DPOY awards and be stupid'

Dwight Howard has played the first game as a member of the Rockets scoring 19 points and pulling down 9 rebounds. Howard replied to the critics of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar who said that “Dwight’s basketball IQ is not up to speed for him to be a dominant player.

“You can’t win three Defensive Player of the Year trophies and be stupid. That can’t be done,” he said, according to the Houston Chronicle. “And I don’t think any coach that has ever coached me has said I have a low IQ for basketball. Have I done some dumb stuff on the floor? Yes, every player has. Have I done some stupid things in life? Yes, it’s life. We make mistakes and learn from them. It is what it is. I think I am very intelligent when it comes to the game of basketball. I have been playing since I was 3 years old. Each year, I get a little smarter.”

Hakeem Olajuwon commented the first game of Dwight Howard with the Rockets.

“What I saw from him tonight were many of the things that we have seen from Dwight earlier in his career. He was athletic. He was alive. But most of all, I think he looked like he is having a good time out there. He is happy and I can tell you from personal experience that means a lot. You need to know that your coach believes in you, that your teammates truly believe in you and that the city is behind you. I think after a couple of difficult seasons, Dwight has that again here in Houston.”

“I’m especially glad that Dwight got to play as many minutes as he did tonight. It will do him good to build up his legs and his endurance was soon as possible, so that when the regular season begins he will be ready to dominate.