NBA superstar Dwight Howard takes a break from his adidas shoot to share his story---the goals he set as a kid, the importance of hitting the weight room and the motivation that continues to drive him.
About the Video
TRANSCRIPT
Dwight Howard: What's up y'all. This is Dwight Howard with Orlando magic and we're here at the Adidas shoot and I'm hanging out with you know who, stack.
The moment that I realized I wanted to be a professional basketball player, I was probably 10 years old and I told my dad I wanted to play in the NBA. The moment where I realized that I had a chance I was probably about 13 and there were some guys at my school who were very good, just big guys. I was beating all the guys that were underneath so it was like, who else am I going to play. And these two guys didn't want to play me because they said I was too young and they tried not to let me play against them.
One day I had a two on two match with the two guys and another guy and I destroyed those guys. After we finished playing, the guy on my team came up to me and he said, "You're going to the NBA out of high school, I see it. Just keep working and I'll see you in the NBA and I'm going to be your biggest fan." I said alright. You believe it and I'll believe it, and I'm going to go do it. After that I just made myself into that person that I am today.
Setting goals helped me achieve success because I always set the bar high for myself and I try to reach those goals. It's something that's visual. It's a visual thing that I can look at to say this is what I need to do. This is what I need to set my mind on and I'm going to do it. I'm not going to let no body stop me from it. My first goal was to be the number one pick in the 2004 draft and that goal came to pass. Everything I did up till that moment was to get myself ready for the draft. I put in a lot of work and I believe that if you work hard and you believe, anything is possible. That's what I did.
That was my first goal. Second goal was to win the state championship. We won the state championship with year. My third goal was to be the number one player in the nation and I was number one player in the nation. So I saw all these goals that I had written come to pass.
Well in order to compete at the highest level to improve my game I would have to stay in great shape and by doing that I would have to continue to work out, to stay in the weight room. The number one cause of injuries in the NBA is guys in the lack of weight training. The guys who were always playing and never had a lot of injuries, it's because they continue to stay in the weight room. All their muscles are strong enough to withstand the 82 game season.
My training throughout my career has picked up from just doing the bench press and the leg press to doing things that I don't even know how to pronounce and doing them well. I've seen myself grow a lot from the first time I started lifting weights to now. I'm doing exercises and things that people have never heard of. I think the biggest thing for me to improve on this year would just be mental toughness; continuing to grow mentally. At this stage of my career confidence and mental toughness is very important.
The game of basketball is 90 percent mental and you can really out think your opponent but also have confidence in yourself and in your shot, that's very important and very vital in anybody's success. The biggest motivation is wanting to be the best and not just settling for the accomplishments that I have now. I feel like I have an opportunity to be one of the best to play that game, to be one of the greatest. For me to achieve that goal I have to be motivated. It's not just motivated against the guys that I'm playing against now but the guys who came before me; Will James, Shaquile O'Neal, Bill Russell, all the great playersThose are the guys that I'm playing against and that's how I feel every time I step on the floor is that I'm playing against these guys, these are the guys who I'm competing with.
I feel great about being with Adidas. I've been with Adidas for a very long time now and I'm just happy that after high school they accepted me in as part of the family but also the steps that I've seen from day one until now. Patience has been very key for me. When I came in I wanted my own shoe and I wanted this and that and I just had to be patient and let it happen. Now I have a shoe that comes out every couple of months so it's amazing.
