Stan Van Gundy Denounces Hakeem Olajuwon’s Impact On Dwight Howard
Here's what we know about Orlando Magic coach Stan Van Gundy:
- He's outspoken and colorful, willing to take on whatever subject that crops into his head, whether it's the Heatles, the NBA on Christmas, Phil Jackson, "The Decision," Michael Wilbon or Chris Bosh.
- He loves his star player, Dwight Howard, and will defend him against criticism.
- He is defending a player in Howard that gets a lot of criticism for his supposed inability to develop post moves.
- He defends his assistant coaches, especially Patrick Ewing.
So really, is it any surprise that Van Gundy isn’t very amused that Hakeem Olajuwon is now getting a lot of credit for Howard’s improved post game because of the above video? Olajuwon, of course, worked with Howard this summer, releasing that video of their time together. Because of that, Howard is getting all this credit for finally developing a post game many felt hasn’t been there in the past. Van Gundy’s response? Child, please.
"Hakeem has gotten more credit for two hours than anyone I've ever seen,'' Van Gundy said with very little prompting. "I mean, they were in a gym for two hours, three hours, and all of a sudden every shot Dwight makes is because of Hakeem.''
Van Gundy said “this isn’t a knock on anybody,” but really, it is a knock on Hakeem. Or, more accurately, all those people who make too much out of an eight-minute video.
And he’s right. Look, Hakeem is awesome, and anything he does with anyone is worth watching. That video has nearly 400,000 views on YouTube, and I’m guessing 100,000 of those are from me refreshing it all the time. But you can’t get good in the NBA simply because of one training session with one legend. It’s a whole body of work that takes time to practice and build up. Dwight has been building that up over the years, and progress is slow, but it should be slow. He’s getting there, and any practice he does is the cause of it.
Here’s something to consider: what if Hakeem was a Magic assistant and Patrick Ewing was the guy in the video? Think about that for a second.
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