ORLANDO, Fla. (AP)—Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard is the NBA’s defensive player of the year after becoming only the fifth player to lead the league in blocks and rebounds in the same season.
The announcement was made Tuesday.
Howard received 542 points, including 105 first-place votes from a panel of 119 writers and broadcasters. Cleveland’s LeBron James was second with 148 points and Miami’s Dwyane Wade finished third with 90 points.
The 23-year-old Howard is the youngest player to win the award. He led the Magic to 59 wins in the regular season, one shy of tying the best record in franchise history set in the 1995-96 season. Orlando trails Philadelphia 1-0 in the first round of the playoffs.
Howard averaged 13.8 rebounds and 2.9 blocks per game this season, his fifth in the league.
The only other players to be rebounding and blocks champions in the regular season were Bill Walton, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Hakeem Olajuwon and Ben Wallace. Blocks were not kept as an official statistic until 1973.
“To be the defensive player of the year at 23 is remarkable,” Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said. “To be a great defensive player usually comes later in a career. And he still has so much room for improvement.”
The award caps a remarkable year for Howard.
He won gold as the center of the U.S. men’s team at the Beijing Olympics, passed Wilt Chamberlain as the youngest NBA player to reach the 5,000-rebound mark and became an All-Star for the third time.
Many saw this coming—just not so soon.
Howard is five months younger than Alvin Robertson, who was 23 years and nine months old when he won the award with San Antonio in the 1985-86 season.
The No. 1 overall draft pick out of high school in 2004, Howard has quickly become one of the NBA’s most dominant centers. His chiseled, 6-foot-11, 265-pound physique makes him one of the most intimidating players, and his incredible vertical leap is even rarer for a big man.
Sixers forward Andre Iguodala found that out first hand in Game 1 on Sunday. Howard nearly soared over teammate Courtney Lee to block Iguodala’s layup attempt.
Iguodala said Tuesday that it was one of the most embarrassing plays of the season for him.
“It’s like he can guard two guys at once. He can guard his guy and the guy coming off the pick-and-roll, which is almost impossible to do,” Iguodala said. “If he gets any more athletic or jumps any higher, they’re going to have to change the rules.”
Howard followed in the footsteps of one of his idols, Boston Celtics forward Kevin Garnett, in jumping straight from high school to the pros. He took No. 12 for his jersey, in part, because it’s the reverse of Garnett’s 21 and allows him to pay homage to the player he looked up to as a kid.
Now the pair have even more in common. Garnett won the award last season for anchoring a Boston defense that won the NBA title.
Yahoo Sports
The announcement was made Tuesday.
Howard received 542 points, including 105 first-place votes from a panel of 119 writers and broadcasters. Cleveland’s LeBron James was second with 148 points and Miami’s Dwyane Wade finished third with 90 points.
The 23-year-old Howard is the youngest player to win the award. He led the Magic to 59 wins in the regular season, one shy of tying the best record in franchise history set in the 1995-96 season. Orlando trails Philadelphia 1-0 in the first round of the playoffs.
Howard averaged 13.8 rebounds and 2.9 blocks per game this season, his fifth in the league.
The only other players to be rebounding and blocks champions in the regular season were Bill Walton, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Hakeem Olajuwon and Ben Wallace. Blocks were not kept as an official statistic until 1973.
“To be the defensive player of the year at 23 is remarkable,” Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said. “To be a great defensive player usually comes later in a career. And he still has so much room for improvement.”
The award caps a remarkable year for Howard.
He won gold as the center of the U.S. men’s team at the Beijing Olympics, passed Wilt Chamberlain as the youngest NBA player to reach the 5,000-rebound mark and became an All-Star for the third time.
Many saw this coming—just not so soon.
Howard is five months younger than Alvin Robertson, who was 23 years and nine months old when he won the award with San Antonio in the 1985-86 season.
The No. 1 overall draft pick out of high school in 2004, Howard has quickly become one of the NBA’s most dominant centers. His chiseled, 6-foot-11, 265-pound physique makes him one of the most intimidating players, and his incredible vertical leap is even rarer for a big man.
Sixers forward Andre Iguodala found that out first hand in Game 1 on Sunday. Howard nearly soared over teammate Courtney Lee to block Iguodala’s layup attempt.
Iguodala said Tuesday that it was one of the most embarrassing plays of the season for him.
“It’s like he can guard two guys at once. He can guard his guy and the guy coming off the pick-and-roll, which is almost impossible to do,” Iguodala said. “If he gets any more athletic or jumps any higher, they’re going to have to change the rules.”
Howard followed in the footsteps of one of his idols, Boston Celtics forward Kevin Garnett, in jumping straight from high school to the pros. He took No. 12 for his jersey, in part, because it’s the reverse of Garnett’s 21 and allows him to pay homage to the player he looked up to as a kid.
Now the pair have even more in common. Garnett won the award last season for anchoring a Boston defense that won the NBA title.
Yahoo Sports
