Dwight Howard wants to shoot '75 to 80' percent from the line

Rockets center plans to raise his free throw percentage by nearly 30 percentage points. The odds are not ever in his favor.

Rockets center Dwight Howard missed 366 free throws last season. Tyreke Evans made 366 field goals last season. So yeah, rough year, as Howard shot 49 percent from the stripe. For comparison, Jose Calderon shot 49.2 percent from the field. You get the picture. 

But don't worry. Dwight wrote down his goal for this season, and it's going to fix everything! 

Howard has entered every NBA season - this is his 10th - with a list of goals. Every year, he takes a couple of hours to think about the upcoming months. He writes a list of goals to strive for each year.

"This season, I want to win a championship," he said. "I want to shoot 75 to 80 percent from the free-throw line. I want to win defensive player of the year.

"I also want to help make Houston a better city. I want to contribute to this community and take advantage of the opportunities I have here."

via All eyes - and smiles - on Rockets' Howard - Houston Chronicle.

Hang on real quick. Got make my own list of goals. 

1. Win Pulitzer Prize. Maybe if I write about how I deserve one...

2. Get Kobe Bryant to take me on a helicopter ride in which he reveals to me his secret dreams and who he really is underneath that tough exterior. Win second Pulitzer. 

3. Convince the Spurs to give me a one-on-one interview for 30 minutes with literally anyone inside the organization. 

4. Write in-depth basketball pieces so thrilling and informative that they dwarf the traffic of sex scandals and completely fabricated trade rumor reports. 

You see the connection? Here, let me spell it out. There's a four way intersection, with a dollar bill in the middle. On each street, there's the Tooth Fairy, Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and a version of Dwight Howard that shoots 80 percent from the free throw line. Who gets the dollar bill? The answer is "No one, because they're all figments of your imagination."

So yeah, not counting on it. But hey, if he can get back to a 60-percent level, that's "terrible but not so bad as to require penance to a higher power." That's a reasonable goal. That he can do.