What is my motivation?

For the last two All-Star Weekends, I’ve been relatively up-close with Dwight Howard and seen how busy he’s become. In 2008, Dwight’s weekend didn’t really get crazy until after the dunk contest, when everybody in New Orleans wanted to get close to “Superman.” This year, with Dwight being a full-fledged NBA golden child, the ASG’s top vote-getter, and adidas’ most high-profile All-Star representative, he was being pulled in 400 different directions from the time he landed in Phoenix until the time he left.

Considering his run with the Olympic team before the ’08-09 season, and his longer-than-ever postseason run this spring/summer, you’d think Dwight would take these offseason months to crawl into a hole and chill out before resurfacing for training camp.

Not quite.

In today’s Orlando Sentinel, writer Josh Robbins recaps Dwight’s summer schedule, for which he hasn’t slowed down at all. And beware — Dwight is getting into acting:

Over the last seven weeks, the Orlando Magic’s all-star center has visited Vancouver, B.C., for an EA Sports function. He has traveled to Hollywood to prepare for a cameo in the upcoming film Valentine’s Day, which features Julia Roberts, Jessica Alba and Jamie Foxx. He’s even pitched a reality show called Dwight Across America.

“I’ve been all around the country, but it’s been fun,” Howard said Tuesday during a break from his basketball camp at UCF. “This is one of the best summers I’ve had in my whole entire life.”

And there is more travel to come, including a trip to China for adidas and a trip to Africa for the program Basketball without Borders.

Howard just wants to clear up one thing: Despite all the fun he’s been having, he said he’s focusing on his game. Two training specialists — Bryan Meyer and Korey McCray — have accompanied the 23-year-old superstar as he has crisscrossed North America. Meyer, a trainer who works at RDV Sportsplex, helps Howard with strength and conditioning. McCray, who played point guard at Mercer University, assists Howard with his free-throw shooting and moves on the court.

“Hakeem Olajuwon had the Dream Shake, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had the Sky Hook, and we’re working on a go-to move for Dwight,” McCray said. “He has an unbelievable work ethic. He’s Superman in Orlando. He’s Superman in the NBA. But he works to be Superman. He just doesn’t wake up and put on a Magic uniform. He works at it.”

After the Magic were knocked off by the Lakers, I wrote about Dwight taking the next step in his development and hopefully being motivated by the series loss to build on his game. From what I read today, it sounds like he’s all about that.

“Losing is not good, but sometimes it really helps you,” Howard told the Sentinel. “It helped us to understand that we’ve got to push ourselves just a little bit more to get to the next level.”

Cool. But I’m not going anywhere near Kazaam 2.

Source: Orlando Sentinel

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