EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (AP) -Dwight Howard shared some time with Hall of Fame center Bill Russell before the Orlando Magic lost Game 1 of the NBA finals.
Howard has long admired Russell, even though his career ended well before the 23-year-old big man became a star. One of the few books Howard said he’s ever enjoyed reading is “Russell Rules.”
“It brought me a little bit closer to him just by reading that book and knowing who he was off the court and how he approached the game of basketball,” Howard said Saturday. “He was always about team first, and basically I’m the same way. My team, that’s the only thing that matters to me.”
The Magic reached the finals by defeating Russell’s old team, defending NBA champion Boston, in seven games of the Eastern Conference semifinals.
“Him and Wilt (Chamberlain) were the only two big men that I always wanted to meet besides Patrick (Ewing),” Howard said. “I never had a chance to meet Wilt, but probably the closest person to Wilt was Bill Russell.”
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ter the NBA draft.
The Spanish teenager has decided to enter the June 25 draft, where he’s projected to be one of the top picks. Rubio has averaged 9.9 points and 5.7 assists this season for Spanish club DKV Joventut.
Rubio, a 6-foot-2 point guard, turns 19 in October, meeting the NBA’s minimum age requirement.
He and Gasol helped win a silver medal for Spain at the Beijing Olympics.
“I wish that he picks the right option and the right team picks him,” Gasol said. “If he decides to come over, I wish him luck, and then of course I’ll try to advise him and help him out in any way I can. He’s extremely mature for an 18-year-old, but he’s still 18 years old.”
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SUPERMAN SLAM: The NBA player first known as Superman isn’t too crazy about his younger namesake.
Shaquille O’Neal, who played for Orlando, has said everything that current Magic superstar Dwight Howard has done he copied from O’Neal right down to Howard’s Superman nickname.
“For me to get my eyes wide open about another big man, he’ll have to do something that I haven’t seen before or something that I haven’t invented,” O’Neal said earlier this season.
Howard has never spoken individually with O’Neal, and he’s unsure why the Phoenix Suns center has singled him out.
at we all look up to. But you can’t control what he says. I’m playing for the finals right now, so my focus is not on what Shaq says or anybody else. It’s getting my team a trophy.”
Before the finals began, O’Neal tweeted on his Twitter feed that he was rooting for former Lakers teammate and rival Kobe Bryant to win the title, which would be his first without O’Neal. Together, they won three consecutive championships from 2000-03.
Asked what he made of O’Neal’s support, Bryant said with a smile, “I don’t make much of it.”
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HELLO, INDIA: For the first time, media from India are covering the NBA finals in person.
A record number of media from Spain (32), Poland (14) and Turkey (8) are reporting on the best-of-7 series. They’re here to cover Lakers forward Pau Gasol of Spain, Magic swingman Marcin Gortat from Poland and Orlando forward Hedo Turkoglu from Turkey.
The Lakers’ Sasha Vujacic of Slovenia and DJ Mbenga of Congo, and Orlando’s Mickael Pietrus of France add the other international flavor. A total of 55 TV and radio stations and Web sites from overseas are covering the finals, with 14 of them doing live commentary.
The Middle East hasn’t been left out, either. The finals are available with Arabic commentary on Al-Jazeera Sport.
The league’s Web site, NBA.com, provides live game audio in 10 languages. Among the more diverse are Dutch, Flemish, Hebrew, Mandarin and Tagalog.
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