Dwight Howard made his mark as the best center of his generation with his sheer strength and dominating athleticism. With the way he powered himself in the previous era, he firmly believes he can also dominate today’s NBA.
He told Complex’s Zion Olojede that his prime has a much superior peak than what Denver Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokic currently boasts, citing reasons that he also managed to dominate with limited offensive opportunities.
“Obviously, people going to say Jokic can score. He got all those offensive skills. But at the same time, I was getting 38 and 20, 45-18, 19, 20, and I’m doing all this with twos. No threes, all twos,” Howard said. “I’m doing this with lobs. I’m not getting a lot of post-up attempts like Jokic. He’s getting way more opportunities I would say as far as to show his low post game and all that stuff. And I was just in a different era.”
Howard is the epitome of an athletic big man back in his reign days as the main man of the Orlando Magic. It can be noted surely that the slow-paced nature of the league heavily influenced the focal craft of his elite game.
But the fact that Jokic already established himself as one of the all-time great centers after recently winning Denver its maiden league title, the majority can already declare that he is the most skillful frontcourt enforcer ever who is the absolute engine of the Nuggets system. From being a stout, second-round pick from Serbia, Jokic transformed into one of the most terrifying offensive forces who propelled the all-around dynamics for a big man.
Albeit he is picking himself in a comparison scenario, Howard isn’t entirely dismissing the two-time MVP’s legacy and greatness.
“I think he’s great. I love Jokic,” he said. “I don’t want people to think that I’m trying to hate even comparing, but I’m going to take myself. I know how dominant I was and I know what I could do with my skills.”
And with how people already Jokic as a Top 5 center, Howard meanwhile believes that he made it to the cut if the list gets extended to Top 10.
“All-time centers, I’m top 10,” Howard continued. “Top 10 all-time. I know everybody what they’re going to say with Shaq, Hakeem, Wilt, Kareem, and then you got Moses Malone.”
