By Brian Schmitz/Orlando Sentinel


After a vintage playoff performance this week with the Houston Rockets, Dwight Howard looked like the same old Dwight Howard who turned the Magic into a contender.
But Dwight says in a wide-ranging interview with the Bleacher Report that he’s a new man, a changed man.
Perhaps he’s matured and gained a perspective that comes with age.
After all, Dwight will turn 30 in December. (My, how time flies or - if you’re a Magic fan the last three Howard-less seasons - crawls.)
“We can all change and become better, and that’s where I’m at,” Howard says.
He regrets some of the things he said while with the Magic. Like when he talked about needing a better supporting cast.
After joining the Lakers, he told an L.A. TV station, “My team in Orlando was full of people nobody wanted.”
Howard especially hurt Jameer Nelson’s feelings after the 2010-11 season. He said then that he’d love to play with All-Star point guards Chris Paul or Deron Williams, leading then-GM Otis Smith to say that Dwight threw Jameer “under the bus.”
“At the time, I was super upset about the team and I wanted to get players that I felt could help us win,” Howard says. “And me coming out and saying, ‘We need better players and we can’t win with what we have,’ I kind of made a lot of the guys who were on the team upset.
“When I look back on it, I could’ve handled that a lot better instead of throwing them under the bus. How could I have gotten those guys better to where we would’ve had a chance to win?”
Howard even said he wished he would have handled his relationship with the local media better. (Wow, give me a minute to regain consciousness.)
Howard also told Bleacher Report that he essentially failed to follow his moral compass. He said he has fathered four children _ two sons and two daughters, ages seven, four, four and one _ with several women. He said he has felt the public backlash.
“I know how harsh the Internet and social media can get, and I don’t want to put my kids through that,” he said. “I don’t want them to have to go to school, and kids are like, ‘Your dad did this. He sucks.’ I don’t want them to have to feel that same kind of hate that I have received. But I spend as much time as I can with them, and I truly love and care for them.”
The story also revealed that Howard has 20 pet snakes and owns a collection of 50-some guns. He even has a bazooka on display.
On the court, he has been trying to regain his health and recapture the dominance he displayed in Orlando. He scored 28 points with 12 boards and two blocks in a Game 2 win against Dallas.
This season, playing in just 41 games, he averaged just 15.8 points and 10.5 rebounds, his lowest totals since his second year.
Remarkably, Howard has not won a first-round playoff series since 2010 when he led the Magic to a 4-0 sweep of Charlotte.
Dwight Howard knows the clock is ticking loudly now on his career and legacy. And, at this age, maybe he’s discovering that a lot of things seemingly start to matter more.