Stars Collide: Howard, Kobe set for title tilt

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-06-04 19:27

LOS ANGELES - Sporting a body-hugging tank top, Dwight Howard bounded onto the press conference podium flashing his megawatt smile and muscles on muscles. Unsure where to sit, he looked at the high chair to his right, a perch he was told was reserved for Los Angeles coach Phil Jackson. Not there.

So Howard slid into a seat occupied moments earlier by Lakers star Kobe Bryant, whose interview session was cold and charmless. Orlando's super center was just the opposite. He beamed like a little kid at the circus and then announced his arrival at the NBA finals.

"This is the chance of a lifetime to be playing for a championship," Howard said. "Our motivation is greatness. We want to be a great team."

Stars Collide: Howard, Kobe set for title tilt

Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard is all smiles as he answers questions during a news conference prior to a practice for the NBA Finals basketball series in Los Angeles, June 3, 2009. [Agencies]

They'll have their chance.

Overlooked for months and an underdog throughout much of the playoffs, the Magic will return to the finals for the first time since 1995 on Thursday night when they take on the Lakers at Staples Center.

Orlando hasn't been on the big hardwood stage since they had Shaquille O'Neal, their original Superman, breaking backboards and roaming the paint on both ends. The Magic are back, and Howard and his band of merry marksmen are relishing that they aren't being given much of a shot.

"We've always been overlooked," Howard said. "We were overlooked in the first series against Philly. We were overlooked against Boston. We were overlooked against the Cavs, and we're still overlooked. We don't want to be a team that everybody picks to win, because I think as a young team, once everybody starts saying, 'OK, you're this or you're that,' sometimes you tend to forget what got you there.

"Everybody picking against us motivates us. It drives us to do something greater."

To understand these two teams and their differences, one need look no further than the two team's respective superstars: Bryant and Howard.

The 30-year-old Bryant, with three championship rings in his jewelry box, is looking for his first without Shaq, his former teammate with whom he shared a love/hate relationship.

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