If you listen Dwight Howard you'll get the diplomatic yet slightly frustrated answer about his Flagrant 2 on Kenneth Faried in Wednesday's loss to the Nuggets on his feelings about it being a hard foul
Dwight Howard:
“It was a hard foul. That’s all I know. I’ve been fouled harder than that before and nobody’s ever gotten kicked out of the game for it, but I get penalized for fouling people hard. Hopefully it stops. My intentions was not to hurt anybody. It was just a hard foul, I've been fouled harder and nothing's happened. You can't put me on separate scale because you consider me bigger or stronger. A foul is a foul. ”
Dwight Howard speaks out of frustration in terms of the punishment he takes on a night in night out basis and the hard fouls he's taken but getting ejected if he fouls hard in return, without malicious intent of course. But Dwight Howard's frustrations seem to be with how there is a double standard on officiating and referee calls and decisions. Something another center who shall remain nameless has complained about in the past.
But if you listen to Kenneth Faried he feels like he had the big man beat at every corner even so much as claiming he rendered Dwight Howard "powerless" against him.Kenneth said: “He was just mad, I was getting in his head. He couldn’t get the rebounds he wanted because I kept getting every one. He was powerless on the boards.”
Yes, Kenneth, I did forget that every rebound you were ripping down was away from Dwight Howard who had performed a freaky friday and zapped himself into Pau Gasol's body.
Getting rebounds over Pau Gasol is nothing special, Nate Robinson accomplishes that as well.
The reason that this is brought up is because, Dwight while not being 100% and his stamina not being where it should be undoubtedly heard about these comments. He was pissed off already, and this won't help matters. But Faried will have his chance to back up his trash talk January 6th when he will face a further along the way Dwight Howard. But the TRUE test of his trash talk shall be February 25th when Dwight will be another month into rehabilitation, another month into his conditioning improvement, and another month to stew on those words, especially upon his return to Denver.
In the real world Kenneth. Dwight Howard is putting up the 2nd to 3rd best numbers at the Center position this year and is currently tied for 2nd in the league in double doubles at 70% effectiveness with his stamina nowhere near what it will be at it's peak, this is not the man you want to piss off when he's at 100%. But fortunately for Lakers fans, you have. Enjoy him while he's "powerless" because the rest of the league sure won't when he isn't.
Dwight's DRB% last year at 100% was 33.1 when he led the league. This year thus far it is 24.3 for the 20th spot in the league. For Kenneth Faried and the rest of the league's sake, he'd better hope it remains that way.
Edited by Majesty, December 28, 2012 - 01:36 AM.
