Can We Please Stop Saying Dwight Howard Doesn't Belong In the Hall of Fame! Dwight Howard Belongs in the Hall of Fame

The Timberwolves recently played the Charlotte Hornets, and the Timberwolves' announcer asked a poll on Twitter - is Dwight Howard a Hall of Famer?  The results were roughly 50-50%.  This, folks, is insane.


Let me state, quite simply, that Dwight Howard (unless he kills someone or engages in Harvey Weinstein type behavior) will be in the basketball Hall of Fame.  He is easily in, and it is not close.


There are guys in the Basketball Hall of Fame who have never been 1st team all-NBA.  Dwight Howard has been first-team all-NBA 5 times; He has been on the all-NBA team 8 times. 


Guys who haven't been 5x First-team all-NBA:


Dirk, Russell, Havlicek, Stockton, David Robinson, Kevin Garnett.  These are some of the 30 greatest players of all-time, and they don't have the First Team All-NBA cred of Howard.


Guys who were great, great NBA players who certainly deserve to be in the HOF --


Elvin Hayes
Bob Lanier
Kevin McHale
Bob McAdoo
Willis Reed
Dave Cowens


None of these guys have anywhere near the level of all-NBA selections that Dwght Howard has.


Now, let's say that the argument is that Dwight Howard was playing against no one - he basically was the best of a bad lot of centers.  Well, then let's examine his worth versus actual Hall of Famer Yao Ming.  Howard defeated Yao for first-team honors in 2008 and 2009. 


Continuing on -- Howard was 3rd team all-NBA as a Laker, and 2nd-team all-NBA as a Rocket! 


For raw stats - there are 13 guys in the history of the NBA who have over 16,000 points and over 12,000 rebounds.  http://bkref.com/tiny/jF06P  They are all in the Hall of Fame or will be in the Hall of Fame. 


Dwight Howard was the Defensive Player of the Year three times.  Three times!  Best defensive player in the NBA at ANY position 3 years.  First-team all-defense 4 times.  His 99 career Defensive Rating places him in the top 10 of players who have played since 1984.
On defensive presence alone, Howard is in the HOF.  And he certainly has been a FAR better offensive player than guys such as Dikembe Mutombo or Alonzo Mourning or Dennis Rodman, all of whom are in the HOF.


With about 2,800 more career rebounds, Dwight Howard will end up in the top 8 all-time in rebounding.  He currently has the 4th best Rebound Percentage in NBA history.


He will end up in the top 35 in Win Shares and the top 65 in VORP.  He finished in the top 7 in MVP balloting 5 times, top 5 4 times, and he finished 2nd in 2010-11.  Guys with fewer MVP Award Shares than Dwight Howard (all with stars are Hall of Famers): 

	Billy Cunningham*	1.081
39.	Spencer Haywood*	1.079
40.	Willis Reed*	1.048
41.	Doug Moe	1.006
42.	Derrick Rose	0.981
43.	Kawhi Leonard	0.980
44.	Alonzo Mourning*	0.968
45.	Jason Kidd	0.933
46.	Artis Gilmore*	0.918
47.	George Gervin*	0.905
48.	Bob Cousy*	0.872
49.	Tracy McGrady*	0.855
50.	Dominique Wilkins*	0.845
51.	Gary Payton*	0.823
52.	Dwyane Wade	0.793
53.	Clyde Drexler*	0.778
54.	Zelmo Beaty*	0.767
55.	Dolph Schayes*	0.730
56.	Scottie Pippen*	0.716
57.	Sidney Moncrief	0.695
58.	Wes Unseld*	0.655
59.	Bernard King*	0.625
60.	Jimmy Jones	0.608
61.	Chris Webber	0.588
62.	Charlie Scott	0.582
63.	Dan Issel*	0.576
64.	Elvin Hayes*	0.572
65.	Grant Hill	0.529
66.	Bob Lanier*	0.527
67.	Bill Walton*	0.522

Basketball-reference.com places his "Hall of Fame Probability" at 99.2%.  This certainly makes sense when you consider that Chris Webber (see above) was a Hall of Fame finalist LAST YEAR and his stats are nowhere near Dwight Howard in any way, shape or form. 


Webber - 85 WS, 17,000 points, 8,000 rebounds, 1,200 blocks, 1X 1st-team all-NBA, 5X overall
Howard - 121 WS, 16,000 points, 12,000 rebounds, 1,900 blocks, 5x and 8x


The only real arguments against Howard are that he came in at the end of Shaq and before the recent wave of great centers, so he wasn't actually THAT good, he was just good by comparison.  He also isn't a great offensive player, so if you look at A-TO and stats that are more offense-oriented, he isn't that great either.  If we are going to go that route, then we really need to figure out what great defenders and rebounders get in (Rodman, Mutombo, Mourning) and which get left out (Howard apparently).


The true reason many people hate Howard is that he left Orlando (where, by the by, he led them to an EC championship) and went to L.A. (who people hate).  In a rare 1-2 punch of hatred, the Lakers fans ALSO hate him because they thought he'd bring a 6th title to Kobe and instead Kobe hated him so much that he regularly called him soft.  Then Harden hated/blamed him for Houston's playoff failure.  Now he is dumped into Charlotte.


While Howard can certainly be blamed for never developing a great set of offensive moves, he did have 5 season where he scored over 18 ppg and his career FG% is over 58% (8 years with FG% over 59%).


Anyway -- haters gonna hate, but there is no objective argument for saying Dwight Howard is not a Hall of Fame player.  He is.  And I believe he should be a first ballot guy as well.