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Via Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel:
[Dwight] Howard traveled to India to help promote the NBA and the game of basketball. League officials regard India’s population of nearly 1.2 billion people as a vast untapped market, and they hope Howard’s star power and megawatt smile will help generate interest in the sport.
Two summers ago, the NBA held its first event in India, a Basketball Without Borders instructional camp. Last December, the league launched NBA.com/India, a website with some content in Hindi. In April, the NBA started its first community basketball league in the country. [...]
Howard will spend a few more days in India, then travel to China for the second time this summer.
Bryan Meyer, a trainer based in Altamonte Springs, accompanied Howard on the trip.
Howard said he worked out for 2 1/2 hours Thursday. He did conditioning work with Meyer and practiced on a basketball court, performing the drills he worked on earlier this summer with former Houston Rockets all-star Hakeem Olajuwon.
Once in a while, someone will criticize Dwight Howard for spending too much time on extracurricular activities and not devoting enough attention on improving himself as a basketball player. However, despite the fact that Howard is halfway around the globe, he’s working on his game.
The criticism for Howard will never end, it seems like. For years, many people — not only Magic fans — hoped and prayed that Howard would work with Hakeem Olajuwon to improve his low post game. But now that Howard is doing just that, working with Olajuwon and trying to get better on the low block, it’s not good enough for everyone.
Go figure.
Nevertheless, next season is going to be an important one for Howard.
After breaking through against Kendrick Perkins and Rasheed Wallace (now retired) in the 2010 NBA Eastern Conference Finals versus the Boston Celtics, the table is set for Howard to wreak havoc on the rest of the league. Especially with Perkins sidelined indefinitely and Yao Ming’s health in question — two players that have had the most success defensively against Howard in the past.
There’s no one that can stop Howard except himself. Howard is putting in the work during the off-season, and soon the public will see the fruits of his labor.
