Fix NBA All Star In 10 Easy Steps

Jerry Vision turned off is still more exciting then
most of All Star Weekend

NBA All Star Weekend, bar none, was the best of it's kind in sports. Key word: was. Even with 108,713 fans in Dallas, the mid-season event was anything but classic. It seems wasted potential is now an NBA staple. The slam dunk contest was one of the most anticipated events of the year and it did deliver. It all delivered. Announcers last Sunday had so little to talk about Jerry Vision was often taking center stage. Watching a enormous screen on a little screen at home.

So what's wrong? Plenty. Can it be fixed? Absolutely! 10 sure fire (and simple) ways to instantly return all star to something meaningful, as follows.




1. Change The CBA

The easiest fix of them all! With the Collective Bargaining Agreement about to be renegotiated it's time they addressed something besides money. If the CBA makes the game easier to promote there will be more money for all. Right?

Players are required to take part in NBA Cares and a platitude of other events so just get rid of 'invitations' and make participation in all star events mandatory. If the NBA is picking it's most electric stars to compete those guys are heading to all star anyway: time off is a non-factor.

Fans watch the NBA because they want to see the highest level of competition. No one tuned in to see Gerald Wallace make an uncontested ally oop dunk. I want to see the best shooters alive, not Daquan Cook. I want to see players with pride on the line in HORSE. Lebron vs Kobe vs Durant vs Wade would deliver entertainment Omri Caspi just can't bring to the table.


2. Jocks Are Pretty Stupid, Get Off The Mic

This is spontaneous and awesome. More!

Most players are in reality pretty dull people. If someone like Shaq or Dwight are entertaining, by all means highlight them and let them speak to the fans. Giving Shaq his own dance with the Jabberwokkeez in Phoenix is one of the best all star moments ever. But why spend time interviewing someone with softball questions about their 'strategy' before a shootout? No one wants to hear an athlete stammer through a few sentences trying to find a colorful way to say "I'm going to try and make more shots then the other guy."








Fans want action. We tune in to watch stars 'play

This is not spontaneous, or awesome. Less! NONE!
Just Spare Us!

sports'. That's why they are called 'players' not actors. If I wanted to hear someone speak I'll watch actors who are paid million to speak. Past contests with multiple rounds/competitors have been traded in for talking heads standing around mumbling players waiting for something to happen. Players get crazy, grab the mic or yell into a camera and that's cool because it's spontaneous. The NBA needs to ditch obligatory stadium speaker interviews. They suck. It's staged. No one cares. It drags everything down.






3. How To Fix Horse

If the NBA introduces competitions as a TNT
joke, how can it entice serious players to
compete?

Getting rid of the ultra-stupid G.E.I.C.O. format was a tiny first step, but this could easily be the crown jewel of all professional All Star events. For two years it's been more boring then 3 ball. The NBA got so much wrong I need a bullet list just to keep it organized.

• Step one means players we actually want to see compete. Lebron vs Kobe makes this a real competition and electric because they will NOT want to lose. They have pride. HORSE just became 500% better, instantly.
• Allow dunks already! Who cares if not everyone can dunk. This is the highest level of competition and if you can't dunk, you lose HORSE. NBA players do not need to be protected by no dunk rules.
• Open the competition up to allow one fan to participate. This guy can play. This guy can own. So why not let the fans root for him? How entertaining would it be for an Average Joe to make the NBA's biggest stars sweat before they shoot him out?
• DITCH THE REF! HORSE is not a game you need a ref for. It's a game you play with your friends in a drive way. If someone tries to cheat it can easily be judged by the group. A player stagnantly informing the ref of his shot is not natural or how it's played at all.
• Get rid of unnecessary replay. I just don't need to see a guy miss a lame attempt 4 times. HORSE is fun because it's quick and people try all kinds of crazy novelty shots. If there is any more then 20-30 seconds between attempts, it drags and gets totally dull. If something is crazy enough to warrant replay the crowd and player reactions will create enough time to show them.
• Get Chuck, Kenny and EJ off the floor. Those guys are great in a studio but they are destroying HORSE. They totally interrupt the flow with their irrelevant banter. The past two contests were more about them taking jabs then the athletes competing. They distract the players, they distract the fans, they delay the competition to make yet another fat joke about Barkley.
• Get rid of the mics entirely. Again, athletes are not talkers. They are totally comfortable playing in front of 1,000's but you can sense stiffness and stage fright when their words are booming out to 100,000 plus fans and on TV's across the world. With the mics off, they'll feel comfortable talking trash, laughing and reacting to player's crazy shots. I don't need to hear a stupid interview after every dunk.
• Host HORSE in the main stadium already. What's the point of outside or a separate stadium? A lame 'play ground' feel? Who cares? I want fans cheering like crazy and amping the players up to go for it the same way they used to in the dunk contests.



Maybe The TNT Guys Are Just Getting A Little Too Greedy?
Or Maybe I'm A Little Full On Corny Fat Jokes. They Have
Ruined HORSE for two straight years. STOP!




• Scratch the Shoot Out. As Barkley pointed out, it's hardly even fair, and it's not HORSE.

What do you know, you can have 5 or 6 players competing instead of just 3 when you remove the crap. They used an extra difficult shot to give everyone an H at the start and cut the end with a shootout to fit in boring interviews, banter and replays. It should not take 5 minutes to get through one round of HORSE. Let 6 players can go for it. They call their own shots, talk trash and stick their chests out. No filler. It's like the NBA just doesn't want this to work.



4. Get Some Cool Entertainment

Usher? Really? Look, I understand that teen aged girls drive the popular music market, and I'm sure some focus group may say he's a great choice, but common sense must at some point prevail.

The White Stripes should have been
asked to perform on the strength of
Meg's glorious bouncing rack alone

USHER SUCKS!!!

Some artists sell lots of records but indeed eternally suck. Why are the Pussycat Dolls introducing NBA games? How is it possible I can reference the Pussycat Dolls in a sports blog at all? Is it not possible to get an artist who is popular with more then one age demographic? Maybe they don't have a hit song in the last week, but everyone still loves them? And maybe they've got some stage presence?


How can someone realistically think that Usher would be a better choice then say, The White Stripes? The Red Hot Chilie Peppers? Or U2? (I even hate U2 but they aren't Usher) Are there not 1,000 better choices then a dumb ass chick wearing a bear suit in a cage? If you're going to have soft-core porn why not just hire Jenna Jamison to sit in a cage? Can't the NBA on ABC license Roundball Rock from NBC just for the good of sports in general? How is it possible John Tesh can be cooler then anyone? Yet... he is.




5. Tell Players To Stop Shooting


Not a rule, but a primer. A pep talk. Before the 4'th quarter, if a play you make is not going to be spectacular, pass the ball. It took a whole half before players started going for it. We don't want pull up jumpers. We want the Harlem Globetrotters. The rookie game was factually better then the allstar game. The Mcdonalds High School All American game was more entertaining. Why make safe plays in an all star game? Deron Williams, Wade, Lebron and Howard were the only guys to even try flashy moves.


Not that shooting a 3 is bad... if you're Dwight Howard, that's awesome. If it's from 35 feet, great! If you make a few and want to get people excited by hitting 10 in a row, uber cool. Just be special. I'd rather see 1 made ally oop off the glass out of 10 attempts then 20 made jumpers from the elbow.

Have point guards post up centers, have centers run the point. If your game is defense offensive players should try to dunk on your head every time while they try to get a monster block on every attempt. Just for the sake of drama. Make it fun! Only a handful of players even got the point on Sunday.


6. Select Stars Based On Projected All Star Results

This is what an application to play in the
All Star game should look like

Sorry Chris Kaman, you're a really good player, but you're not an All Star. Shaq, Vince Carter... you're all stars and I want to watch you. Every year you can drag your sorry aging asses through the game. Why is David Lee playing? Big Daddy's personality was engineered in a lab for this. Vince Carter, while a questionable teammate, is nearly the greatest All Star player in history. He created the big moments that made past games memorable. Why is he not making dunks off the backboard and tea-bagging French dudes every single year?


The NBA talks up it's product and entertainment constantly yet is obsessed with rewarding players based on team performance and merit? If David Lee is great on a 19 or 60 win team, Shaq will provide about 50 more superior moments then Lee so he should be there. He's a star among stars and David Lee is not. It's that simple.

So let fans vote in the starters. Lee out. Shaq in. Entertainment WAY UP!

7. Fix The Dunk Contest

Fixing the CBA will do the heavy lifting here again. Nate Robinson, who has dunked 3 times all year in games, has won 3 dunk titles. Not to take it away from him, but it's obvious this is not a contest if no one worthy competes. The fixes for HORSE also apply. The dunk contest has gone from guys in jersey's creating excitement to people in suits pretending to be excited. Once the boring filler is removed and the best athletes in the game are in the contest we have more room for things we actually find entertaining.

Robbed! How Can You Not Advance That Grin?

Return to 3 rounds so it's harder to win. The judges jobbed Dwight Howard's underrated sticker dunk because only two could advance. A middle round ensures that only a true failure/mistake will bump you. Let contestants dunk 3 times taking the best two. I also prefer the old school rule of 2 attempts preventing embarrassments like Birdman and Nate Robinson's 100 attempts each on dunks they can't really complete. The fact that Nate beat Igudola after his million attempts is a failure of the system, not the players.


Lastly any foul line dunk attempts inside the foul line gets an automatic 25. It's the most overdone dunk in history. It has to go. Does anyone truly get excited anymore when they go to the back corner? Yet another imitator to jump inside the line coming up. Every time: FAIL!


8. Fix The 3 Point Contest


This should have been the field this year.


Ray Allen
Stephen Curry (the only one who should have been there)
Jason Kappano
Anthony Morrow
Danial Gibson
Arron Affallo
Gilbert Arenas (best shot in the league! snicker!)


Make room for a star or two who wants to prove they can shoot like James or Kobe. The best shooters showcasing the league's talent. People who don't watch hoop watch this contest and when they see someone clang over half their shots what's going to make them watch more? A Craig Sager interview with the guy to miss the least? Sorry, won't work.

Hmm... on that note:


9. Fire Craig Sager

How Can This Man Be Hired To
Do Anything Dressed Like That??

This man has got to go. Or fire his mom as head of wardrobe. It's must end. My girlfriend is chinese and while she speaks great English she sometimes will say something like "Were you disappointing with that All Star game?"


Sager asked if Kobe was "disappointing" being hurt for the ASG. But he's a native english speaker! The man has a little Forest Gump in him. Look NBA, ABC kicked NBC's ass and used it's Survivor money to outbid them for NBA rights. We know. At some point you have to realize NBC did a kick ass job of promoting hoop. Sometimes it's good to ignore the bottom line. Highlights were better. Intros amped us up. They covered better and more games and they didn't hire people who can't speak English or make a fool out of themselves every night with their clothing.


Craig Sager has become a personification of all that is the NBA on ABC. A lot of non-memorable cliches dressed up in a cheap suit. Fire Craig Sager, fix the NBA.



10. Fix The Voting Process


Mark Stein writes a yearly column justifying the all-star ballot committee's failures and justifying why deserving players don't make it. He actually writes it before the season starts as that's when the ballot is made. Why? Because they make the ballot before a single game is played. One year Marbury was on the ballot without playing a single game for the Knicks because he 'might' have been all-star worthy in February.

Question: Sound stupid? Maybe not in 1970 when it took time and money to print, distribute, collect and count votes... but that was 40 years ago. I don't use a telegram when I have a cellphone in my pocket. Conclusion: it is stupid.

Message to NBA: save a tree! In 2010 (as in 2000 for that matter) voting should be done online and fans should be able to select any player. What is the point of paper ballots in an arena when fans are txting which 4 year old they think did the best silly dance in the half time show? The impetus for ballots has vanished like your season ticket revenues. Use technology, open the ballot to all the players, save money, improve all-star weekend. It makes my brain bleed.

Even With A Stadium Like This, With The Largest
Crowd In History, This Was The Worst All Star
Weekend I May Have Ever Seen

This past weekend, if anything, is a textbook example of trying too hard. From the attendance record, to Jerry Vision to Sager's suit. The NBA, and ABC, just has to realize that their main product is not in their studios but is on the court. That's why players make millions of dollars: we want to see 'them'. Step back. Let the game market itself. Let it be what it is without the bear suits and glam. Give us what we want. Give us basketball. Not tivo fodder.





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D12: DPOY: MVP Candidate: Dwight Howard Unnoticed?

Clark Kent Has Left The BuildingI'm not going to pretend that Dwight Howard is not getting attention. He's slated to win DPOY and discussed in the MVP talk but not nearly the way he should be. The Magic won 59 games this year, good for third in the east with a PG who was never taken seriously, going down, and replaced with a playground baller turned pro. The team features other such 'stopper staters' as Rashard Lewis, Jameer Nelson/Raefer Alston and Mickael Pietrus. Orlando Magic defensive rating: #1.

With the Celtic's latest KG news the Magic have to be considered favorites to reach the eastern finals: Philly/Chicago/beat up Celtics can't be considered a bigger challenge then Detroit/Miami/Atlanta, right? Not when the Magic have handed it to the Greens all season.

The media has anointed him 'most dominant big in the league'. Right? The magic came together as a team and he's getting all the credit he deserves. Right?

Wrong. I follow the league. Dwight Howard is the center piece of my (first place, rock!) fantasy team. I check his box scores nearly every time he plays. In a recent ESPN MVP writer's poll he got paltry results... 1 second-place vote, 2 third, 10 fourth, 1 fifth.

I follow daily yet I was not aware of his progress. The capacity of the leap is astounding. I took a look, and a double take, at the numbers. This year is not a campaign for most dominant player in the league. This year is the start of a campaign for most dominant big in history. This includes you, Big Shaqtus.

Three disclaimers.

1. I'm not comparing Dwight to Shaq Daddy today. This is Shaq in his prime vs Dwight before he enters his.

2. I realize rules have changed recently increasing things like scoring. But its also made it harder for bigs to defend and board. Move over league history. Dwight is here and will be most dominant ever.

3. Only having access to stats from 1986 on I know this leaves players out of the mix. Honestly however basketball before this time was a different game. Sorry if it offends you but Wilt and Russel would not be anywhere near the players they were after 1986 on. That's my opinion I suppose, and I cede that on sheer dominance, Wilt would blow Dwight away on these lists, but I literally don't have the resources to show that era's stats or I would. So this is really just about the more modern era of ball. On with it!

Edit: One more disclaimer. Got into a discussion on a forum about this post and a litany of incredibly angry ball fans appeared to be mortally insulted that I could suggest Shaq was anything but the most dominant player ever and Dwight his little bitch. So people should note (or perhaps you know, just read the following definition that should have taken care of this in the first place) that I don't actually claim Dwight is better then Shaq. Nor do I think he's better, greater or more acomplished then Shaq. He's too young to be compared at that level.

I claim he's more dominant which is a measure of how good you are in relation to your peers and I back it up fairly well. Shaq was great and dominant but played in an era with peer big men who were periodically above him, below him and close to him. So, to the edumacated among us, here's a place you can get help and I have some great Dr. Seuss books... lets continue.

Nature's Version Of Dwight Howard

Dictionary.com says

Dominate:
–verb (used with object)
1. to rule over; govern; control.
2. to tower above; overlook; overshadow: A tall pine dominated the landscape.

Stats too often focus on a single category over a season and miss the forest for the trees. Its how a player combines all cats in a single game that counts. I define center dominance as points, rebounds and blocks. Comparison is not really what the dictionary wants here either. He must dominate the landscape as the mighty pine. So, lets compare Dwight, one player, to the entire league, of 432 of players.

First up, a double double. For bigs it only indicates you are doing your job. Its not dominant. If you block 5 shots in the process however you're starting to own the paint. How many games is Dwight's mark?

10/10/5 Club

Years Pro	Player	Pos	10/10/5 Games
1	NBA	A	32
2	Dwight Howard	C	14
3	Marcus Camby	F	5
4	Andris Biedrins	C	3
5	Tim Duncan	F	3
6	Chris Andersen	F	2
7	Yao Ming	C	2
8	Josh Smith	F	2

Not so great Dwight. The entire league has 18 more 10/10/5 games while you only have 14. Never mind that its 3 times number 2 Camby, nearly 5 times Duncan/Biedrins and 7 times everyone else. It takes the next 5 top players in the league to equal your total Dwight. You can't dominate a girl scout.

Dwight's Response: 10 points nor 10 boards are anything to get excited about. I'm all man now so get those child stats outta my house.

We'll oblige the big fella. Lets add 5 boards to that total.


10 points, 15 boards, 5 blocks

Rk	Player	Pos	Games
1	Dwight Howard	C	10
2	Entire NBA	A	4
3	Andris Biedrins	C	1
4	Marcus Camby	F	1
5	Tim Duncan	F	1
6	Al Horford	C	1

Once the numbers reflect raw pwnage inside, Howard more then doubles the entire NBA's production. Individuals only have 1 such game a piece. Lets keep going, but its not fair to list them anymore. Sorry Timmy... you didn't make the cut. Just to show whats happening with Dwight Howard vs. the world the numbers have to be increased.

15/15/5

Years Pro	Player	15/15/5 Games
1	Dwight Howard	8
2	NBA	2

20/20/5 Games

Years Pro	Player	20/20/5 Games
1	Dwight Howard	2
2	NBA	0

4 times the whole NBA in 15/15/5 games? INSANE! Did you notice? In the 20/20/5 club of "I am center, hear me roar" Dwight Howard is putting up infinity percent more then the rest of the league. Infinity percent, times two, to be precise.

Which leads us to history. For a BIG the 20/20 personifies the separation of good and great. The marker of a truly dominant player. Dwight is on pace to own the record for most 20/20 games in about 1.5 years. Maybe sooner as he is still developing. The top of the 20/20 list looks like this.

Years Pro	Player	Pos	20/20 Games
1	Charles Barkley	F	37
2	Hakeem Olajuwon	C	35
3	Shaquille O'Neal	C	34
4	Kevin Garnett	F	27
5	Dwight Howard	C	23

People Are As Close To Howard As AI Is To Making This shot
Considering potential, time remaining and all that jazz, there are no active players who are realistically close. Al Jefferson has 20/20 skills except in his fifth year he only has four 20/20 games to 23. Big Al is preobably the closest to compete!

By the time Howard is done wreaking his brand of havoc he could easily have 60 of these games. Unheard of in the modern era of basketball.

To put it yet another way: only 9 players have topped Dwight Howards 9 20/20 games this season, wait for it, in their entire cumulative careers. And none before they were 23.

As I write this Howard is not yet finished his fifth year of pro ball. He already has more 20/20's then this bunch in their whole lifetime. Be sure to note the number of years each player took, multiply by 'star power' and consider how in less then 5 years he's overtaken them.

Years Pro	Player	Pos	20/20 Games
16	Charles Barkley	F	37
17	Hakeem Olajuwon	C	35
16	Shaquille O'Neal	C	34
13	Kevin Garnett	F	27
5	Dwight Howard	C	23
22	Kevin Willis	F	22
11	Tim Duncan	F	19
16	Patrick Ewing	C	18
13	David Robinson	C	13
19	Karl Malone	F	12
17	Dikembe Mutombo	C	9
18	Chris Webber	F	9
12	Marcus Camby	F	7
20	Moses Malone	C	7
20	Robert Parish	C	7
7	Yao Ming	C	3
15	Alonzo Mourning	C	2
7	Arvydas Sabonis	C	2

Sabonis gets a pass. Had he played in his youth he would have torn the NBA to pieces. He was so good that the NBA would have been an entirely different era with different players winning championships.

Years Pro	Player	Pos	20/20 Games
78	Mike Dunleavy	G	1

Mike's Typical Day In The Paint
Mike Dunleavy also gets a pass cuz Mike Dunleavy is a FREAKING GUARD! Have you seen him? He's a rail. "BIG WOW" to you Mike Dunleavy!

Can I repeat again that he is only 23 years of age??? 50 or 60 20/20 games is actually Dwight's low mark. At 25 he should be sitting neatly at 40 and first place all time. Should we expect 80? 100? If his body can keep up like TD's (who had a 20/20 this year at 34) 100 20/20 career games might be his ceiling with 60-80 being his likely result.

Forget scoring. For a center points are the easy work. Focusing on boards alone Dwight is 10'th all time in 20 rebound games. Here's the list.

Rk	Player	Pos	Games
1	Dennis Rodman	F	159
2	Dikembe Mutombo	C	52
3	Charles Barkley	F	48
4	Ben Wallace	F	41
5	Hakeem Olajuwon	C	40
6	Kevin Garnett	F	36
7	Shaquille O'Neal	C	35
8	Kevin Willis	F	35
9	Marcus Camby	F	33
10	Dwight Howard	C	31

Yes! 159 More Excuses To Put Up Weird Dennis Rodman picsProps to the Worm. Maybe the most under-rated player of all time and the undisputed best pure rebounder ever. I digress: that's another column. He didn't put up points or blocks like D12.

What should be noted is that at age 23 Dwight is in 10'th place with 9 more 20 board games then Duncan and 10 more then Ewing. If he continues having 10 20 board games a season (like this one) he'll pass everyone except Rodman before he's 25 and again just entering his prime.

That's historically. Measures of domination are not against history but by outperforming peers. Why can we safely assume that baring injury he's going to continue pulling down 20's so frequently? Lets look at the list of active players who have had even 1 20 board game and is under 30. No offense to TD et al, but they're in the twilight of respective brilliant careers. This is the competition.

Rk	Player	Pos	Games
5	Dwight Howard	C	23
25	Chris Kaman	C	5
28	Dirk Nowitzki	F	5
29	Carlos Boozer	F	4
32	Al Jefferson	F	4
36	Amare StoudemireF	4
44	Yao Ming	C	3
46	Emeka Okafor	F	3
49	Andrew Bogut	C	2
50	Chris Bosh	F	2
51	Tyson Chandler	C	2
61	Zach Randolph	F	2
72	Nick Collison	F	1
87	Al Horford	C	1
90	David Lee	F	1
96	Troy Murphy	F	1

There's not a lot of competition there. Only 16 have even one 20 board game and #2 is 25'th all tim with 5 of them. When you consider that most of them are closer to 30 then 25, much less 23, and most of them have already started to break down, the list is actually shrinking and this league is Howard's. A few other views to consider.

The 15/15/5 club, active and under 30, is a small club.

Rank	Player	Pos	Games
1	entire league:	A	17
2	Dwight Howard	C	12
3	Emeka Okafor	F	6
4	Yao Ming	C	5
5	Chris Kaman	C	2
6	Andris Biedrins	C	1
7	Tyson Chandler	C	1
8	Al Horford	C	1
9	Josh Smith	F	1

Lets talk blocks. (3 times fast!) D12 vs. the league. Starting at 3/game: everyone has a game with a block or two. It goes without saying: Howard is in first place for every row until you factor in the league thing. I factored in fluke games for this one. If a guy has a solitary >5 block game in an entire season that's a statistical burp; not a peer of Dwight Howard. I included some percentages on who owns what as well.

x Blocks	Howard	Entire League	Non-Fluke Games	# Of Others	# Of Non-Fluke Others	DH's % Of Total Games	DH's % Of All x BLK Games (Non Fluke)	% Of DH Games With x BLKS	% Of 432 Who Can't	% Of 432 Who Can't Or Fluke
3	42	879	830	167	112	5	5	53	61	74
4	24	312	268	100	56	7	8	30	77	87
5	15	103	72	52	19	13	17	19	88	96
6	8	33	20	21	7	20	29	10	95	98
7	2	11	7	7	3	15	22	3	98	99
8	2	4	0	4	0	33	100	3	99	100
9	1	1	0	1	0	50	n/a	1	100	100
10	1	0	0	0	0	100	n/a	1	100	100

I'm not sure what is more astounding considering any position is totally capable of having a few blocks in a game; that 5%/8% of all 3/4 block games or 30% of all 6 or more block games (non-fluke) in a league of 432 players are his.

x Boards	Howard	Entire League	Non-Fluke Games	# Others	# Non-Fluke Others	DH's % Of All x-Board Games	DH's % Of All x-Board Games(Non-Fluke)	% Of DH Games With x BLKS	% of 432 Who Can't	% of 432 Who Can't Or Fluke
10	63	2041	2005	200	170	3	3	80	54	61
11	59	1440	1379	186	130	4	4	75	57	70
12	55	990	942	147	99	5	6	70	66	77
13	51	679	645	117	83	7	7	65	73	81
14	45	435	401	95	61	9	10	57	78	86
15	34	284	259	75	50	11	12	43	88	83
16	23	169	145	54	30	12	14	29	88	93
17	19	118	100	42	24	14	16	24	90	94
18	17	75	57	36	17	18	23	22	92	96
19	14	45	28	26	9	24	33	18	94	98
20	10	27	16	18	7	27	38	13	96	98
21	6	13	7	9	3	32	46	8	98	99
22	3	9	3	7	1	25	50	4	98	99.7
23	2	5	3	2	1	29	40	3	100	99.7

Again, whats most impressive? He's responsible for almost 40% of the non-fluke 20 board games and 46% of the non-fluke 21+ board games or that half the league is not even capable of having one 10 board game while Howard has 63 of them. That's a 75% chance every night. Maybe its a nearly 60% chance he pulls down 14 boards, every, single, night. There is no player like this today. There are very few players like this in the past. Once Dwight Howard actually reaches his prime there will be no player in history like this.

Last point. Lets consider something other then stats. In the ESPN voting page I linked to one of the writers said "Dwight needs to improve at the offensive end. 20 ppg won't win MVP." Being a good offensive player is not always about putting the ball through the hoop and its not always about being the player to have the ball right before another player scores.

Dwight's presence inside demands a constant double team/team defensive strategy. Opponents collapse on Dwight which gets easy open looks for others. Go inside, the defense collapses, pass back out and swing it to the weak side for a great look. That IS the Magic's offense. Anyone paying attention when watching realizes that Howard is involved in nearly every single scoring play. Free looks and open lanes for everyone aboud and thats because of him... not Hedo and Lewis.

He's been so effective he made perennial laughing stock Jameer Nelson an all-star. The fact he scores 20 PPG only indicates his willing attitude to work within the structure of the offense to create the best opportunity to score points instead of getting his. He's happy playing for 59 wins despite downgrading his point (and losing his bench point) then for 50 and 30 PPG.

Howard is ranked 7'th or 8'th on mock MVP ballots behind players like Billups, Kobe, Pierce and Brandon Roy. I challenge anyone doing so to look at these numbers and honestly tell me he's not top 3. Dwight is unmistakeably on a historical tear starting this season and ending approximately 5-10 years later when micro fractured knees meet kryptonite edged scalpels. If they hold off till then he'll also shatter nearly every important stat for a big man in the modern era of basketball. In many cases, doubling the current all time mark. The Magic have the best defense in the league and not because #12 is really entertaining in the dunk contests. Its time for people to take notice. Superman has landed.