Hakeem Olajuwon: Teaching his tricks to Dwight Howard

Following last season, where the Orlando Magic were eliminated in six games by the Boston Celtics. Dwight Howard took a one week course to learn new post moves from the one of the best big man to play the game, Hakeem Olajuwon. In this clip, Hakeem showed Dwight how to use his quickness and footwork to become a better big man in the post. As shown below:



In the eight minute clip, Dwight learned baseline moves as well as the counter moves to keep his defenders honest. It's a delight for Magic fans to see Howard improve his post moves considering that many people see him using brute force to score his points along with power dunks. Yet, it does make me wonder what Patrick Ewing taught him over the past two years has actually materialized at all?

In addition, it's nice to see the Superstars of today learn from legends like Hakeem rather than just slouch around during the whole summer. In fact, just last year Kobe Bryant spent a week during the summer, learning from Hakeem various post moves such as the Dream Shake. As you can see below in this brief 1:43 clip:






Kobe revealed his version of the dream shake against the Clippers last season (seen above). In the twenty-three second clip, he got Deandre Jordan and Al Thorton to bite before scoring on a scoop shot.

Although, Kobe never fully displayed what he learned during the summer, it still gave defenders just like it will for Dwight Howard something to worry about during a game or in a playoff series. If Dwight can master what he learned with Hakeem, he may just live up to the Superman billing he has been anointed with for some time.

Currently, the Eastern Conference is stacked with teams like the Boston Celtics with their Big Men R Us, Miami with their triumvirate (Wade, Lebron and Bosh) , and Chicago. In addition, the twin towers frontline of Andrew Bynum (if his knees hold up) and all-world Pau Gasol along with Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers to the West. It's a new weapon for Dwight to counter the escalating arms race in Orlando's neighborhood and across the NBA world.