As we know, despite the gaudy stats, Dwight Howard has struggled for the most part on both ends of the floor. He’s blamed himself for the lack of conditioning and inconsistent energy that he’s provided, which has contributed to the lack of chemistry of the team.
—- See Dwight Howard through the years in photos! —-
He’s still obviously not 100 percent after going through back surgery. Remember that he wasn’t even supposed to be ready for opening day and he came back for that.
Now he says his conditioning is improved. And he also made sure that he changed his diet just a tad bit. From Ramona Shelburne of ESPN Los Angeles:
“I’m just making sure I don’t eat as much candy and sugar so I can get in good shape,” he said. “Back when I was able to play 48 minutes, I could eat anything. But now I can’t.”
Just how big of a candy lover is he?
“Am I a big candy person? That’s an understatement,” he joked. “My pantry is full of candy. Skittles just sent me 30 pounds of Skittles. I have a nightstand full of every candy you could think of. Skittles, blow pops, Laffy Taffy, Reese’s Pieces, Kit Kats, all types of candy was in the drawer. They had to clear it out.”
He’s a professional athlete yet he eats like a little kid (hi, Lamar Odom). It’s especially hard to keep your diet in control when you’re coming back from an injury. Howard has to be more diligent than that and stop with all the sweets when he’s playing basketball. At least he’s admitting to his mistakes now and that’s much more progress than ignoring everything that’s going wrong.
Howard also has a renewed commitment to running the pick-and-roll with Steve Nash. With a better diet and a better understanding of the playbook, Howard has a chance to be the player that everyone saw in Orlando and that everyone in Los Angeles wanted.
And he has to be closer to that as the Lakers go through the stretch run. Especially if Pau Gasol does get shelved for the rest of the regular season. Howard is needed more than ever on the team and for him to provide that energy, yes, he must cut down on the candy.
