72 reasons to be excited about the Atlanta Hawks: #68 Dwight Howard

I will make no secret that I like Dwight Howard. Shoot, when I met him, he went out of the way to introduce himself to my wife. I like his personality, and really I just kind of enjoy that he enjoys entertaining. And as a  bit of a sidebar, after watching Usan Bolt, I have decided to label people idiots who say you cannot dominate and have a good time in the process. 

Regardless of your feelings on young Dwight, you will be excited about him as a Hawks fan. Even if you say you would never be excited about another team or another player, Dwight Howard will prove you wrong if you see him in person. He has this unique ability to seem completely normal looking (albeit jacked) on tv and nearly not human in person. Seeing how big this man is even compared to other big people is going to get you excited. Even if it is only circus-y excited.

On a matter more pertaining to the Hawks, Dwight scored 82 points against the Hawks last season in four games. One could easily argue that outside of Boston, no team that played Orlando four times did a "better" job on Howard than Atlanta. Considering all the teams, Dwight had higher scoring averages against 14 teams than he did in Atlanta.

Of course, Orlando went 3-1 against Atlanta and handed the Hawks arguably one of their worst loses of the season. Dwight averaged 20 points a game on over fifty percent shooting. So I am not trying to make any sweeping claims other than to say it fascinates me to look at why and how a team can bring Al Horford, Solomon Jones, and Zaza Pachulia (a power center at best, a bad third string center, and an incredibly slow center respectively) to guard a physical freak like Dwight and hold him to his average.

For all the reasons I love the NBA that involve its quick pace, high skill level, overabundance of personalities, etc. I find it equally exciting to watch a clear mismatch play out. Whether it is Dwight not getting enough touches or the outside shots are falling or Horford just having an underrated game denying the ball, it is just fun to watch.

Maybe I just notice it more with Dwight Howard because I like him and well, he is noticeable. But you have to get excited about watching some of the best players in the league, not so you can don your favorite Kobe or LeBron jersey, but to see how your team can match-up, scheme, outplay, or get outplayed. And the joy of the NBA is that you get to see it on every single possession.