He was selected for the Double First Team at the age of 23, led the team to the finals by 20+13 per game. He is only one step away from creating miracles.

Not long ago, Dwight Howard, who had retired for some years, was successfully selected for this year's Naismith Hall of Fame. Although his performance in the later stages of his career has declined, it has to be admitted that Howard was indeed the top center in the NBA that year. When he was last selected as the top 75 superstars in NBA history, his failure caused considerable controversy, so this time he was selected, which was also the result of everyone. Looking back at Warcraft's career, he reached his peak very early, especially at the age of 23, he once wanted to create miracles, only one step away from winning the championship, which is a height that many players cannot reach. Let’s go back to the 2008-09 season to see how shocking Howard’s performance in that season was!

Crazy harvest of honors and lead the team to the third place in the East.

Let's talk about the regular season first. Although he is only 23 years old, Howard has reached his peak. In the entire league, except for Yao Ming who can gain an advantage in the duel, the other centers are basically Howard's defeated. Coach Stan Van Gundy also tried his best to leverage Howard's advantages and created a star-shot attack system on the offensive end. Howard was even more powerful on the defensive end, and supported the team's system by one person. In the end, his data reached 20.6 points, 13.8 rebounds, 1.4 assists, 1 steal and 2.9 blocks, and his shooting percentage reached 57.2%. The Magic also had a very successful year. Rashad Lewis, Jamil Nelson and Howard were all selected for the All-Star lineup, with a record of 59 wins and 23 losses. They ranked third in the East after the Cavaliers and Celtics. In the end, with his outstanding performance and the team, Howard was selected for the All-First Team, the All-Defensive First Team and the All-Star Team. In addition, he also won the double titles of rebounding king and blocking king, and won the first DPOY trophy in his career. During this year, he frantically reaped a large amount of data and became the league's number one center.

defeated the 76ers without any danger and defeated the defending champion.

And in the playoff stage, Howard began to show his value, facing the 76ers in the first round. Despite losing the first game, Howard scored 31 points, 16 rebounds and 2 blocks, completely dominating the inside, making the 76ers feel very distressed. Although he scored 11 points, 10 rebounds and 4 blocks in the second game, and left the game with six fouls, fortunately Courtney Lee, Lewis and Hildo Tkoglu were fully fired, while only Andre Miller, Iguodala and Sadness Young were able to score on the 76ers, and the team successfully won a game. In the third game, Howard broke out again, scoring 36 points, 11 rebounds and 3 blocks again, but the team lost 2 points again. The Magic felt a huge pressure, but fortunately they withstood the pressure. In the fourth game, Howard contributed 18 points, 18 rebounds and 3 blocks to successfully tie the big score. After that, the Magic did not give any chance to the 76ers. The Battle of Tianwang Mountain became the stage for Howard's performance, with 24 points and 24 rebounds in the audience, and the 76ers collapsed on both ends of the offense and defense. Although he failed to play in the sixth game, the Magic team blossomed, with six players scoring in double digits, successfully defeating the 76ers in the first round without any danger.

faced the defending champion Celtics in the second round. Kevin Garnett was injured in the regular season and was directly reimbursed for the season, which made the Celtics' inside line very empty, and this undoubtedly gave the Magic a chance to be upset. In the first game, the Warcraft scored 16 points, 22 rebounds and 3 blocks, smashing the Celtics' inside line and successfully winning the first goal. However, the Celtics did not intend to surrender. The young Rajon Rondo showed his superstar potential in the second game, scoring 15 points, 11 rebounds and 18 assists, successfully helping the Celtics keep the downturn. But obviously the Magic's one-star four-shot system has been very skilled. Although the Warcraft only scored 17 points and 14 rebounds in the third game, under his attraction, the Magic team shot 50% of the three-point shooting percentage, and the team successfully defeated the opponent. In the fourth game, "big baby" Glen Davis stood up, scoring 21 points and 14 rebounds in the whole game, and exploded with Howard, who scored 23 points, 17 rebounds and 3 blocks. The Celtics successfully won the final victory and narrowly won by 1 point. And taking advantage of the great boost of morale, the Celtics defeated Magic again at Tianwang Mountain and got the match point. Faced with the dilemma of being about to be eliminated, Howard broke out completely, scoring 23 points, 22 rebounds and 3 blocks in the sixth game, successfully dragging the game into tiebreak. In the tiebreak game, although Howard scored not many points, he contributed a lot on the defensive end, scoring 12 points, 16 rebounds and 5 blocks. With Tkoglu's 25 points, 5 rebounds and 12 assists, Lewis's 19 points and Alstom's 15-point bench scored 17 points, they finally completed an upset and defeated the defending champion.

successfully defeated the Knights and almost created a miracle.

After defeating the Celtics, this boosted the morale of the Magic team. Although they faced the Cavaliers led by new MVP LeBron James in the Eastern Conference Finals, they did not have any fear. It has to be said that Howard is indeed worthy of the status of the number one center at that time. When the Cavaliers had only one big Z who had passed the peak of 33 in the interior, his advantages were fully reflected. In the first game, he scored 30 points and 13 rebounds, smashing the Cavaliers' inside line. Although James scored 49 points, 6 rebounds and 8 assists, the team was unable to limit Howard, and he eventually lost the first game. In the second game, although Howard only scored 10 points, he contributed 18 rebounds and 2 blocks. The Magic also had the advantage of the game. If it weren't for James' three-pointer finale, the Cavaliers would have gone to Orlando with a score of 0:2.. After returning to home court, Howard first scored 24 points and 9 rebounds with six fouls, helping the team win with a 10-point advantage. Then he scored 27 points, 14 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 blocks in the fourth game, beating the Cavaliers for the third time, allowing James to pass the luxury data of 44 points, 12 rebounds and 7 assists, and also got the match point. Although in Game 5, James scored 37 points, 14 rebounds and 12 assists triple-double to help the team win a game, in Game 6, Howard played the best performance in the playoffs, scoring 40 points, 14 rebounds and 4 assists in the game, and finally defeated the Cavaliers and successfully advanced to the finals.

For Howard at that time, he was only one step away from creating history. His magic senior Shaquille O'Neal once led the team to the finals in his third-year career. Although he was only 23 years old, he was almost the same age as O'Neal and entered the finals. If he could lead the team to win the championship, he would likely improve his ranking on the historical center list. But it has to be said that the Lakers' lineup is more reasonable and has richer experience. In the first game, Kobe Bryant scored 40 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists. As the core of the Magic, Howard only scored 12 points and 15 rebounds, and only scored one goal in the game in the sports game. The team directly defeated his opponent with a disadvantage of 25 points. In the second game, although the team lost again, this time they fought to overtime, Howard's data also recovered to 17 points, 16 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 steals and 4 blocks. After returning to home, they seized the opportunity. Howard scored 21 points, 14 rebounds and 2 blocks. In addition to himself, the team also scored more than 18 points, and they successfully won a finals victory. In the fourth game, Howard completely dominated the inside, scoring 16 points, 21 rebounds and 9 blocks, but Kobe was indeed strong. In the end, the Lakers defeated the Magic after overtime. After this game, the Magic felt that the situation was hopeless. In the fifth game, Howard only scored 11 points and 10 rebounds, and the Lakers completed the top and won the NBA championship again after 7 years. The reason why Howard failed to regain his peak later was also a pity for fans. If he had won the championship that year, perhaps the era of small balls would not have appeared later.