Dwight Howard says he could play Bill Russell role for Celtics

In an interview on Shannon Sharpe's show recently, Dwight Howard was asked about the Boston Celtics and said that they would have been a good fit for what he can give a team. While he said he could play a Bill Russell role for the current squad, he was in no way implying he'd be the dominant force that Russ was. He simply meant he could defend the basket and rebound.

Still a bit of an eye raising quote, but I really don't think he meant anything outrageous by it. If anything he was trying to pay respect to one of the all-time greats.

Howard has lamented how Shaquille O'Neal, another center who he grew up admiring greatly, has always been very cold and insulting to Dwight. Howard can be kind of a goof ball, but I think he does have a lot of respect from greats of the past.

As for the Celtics and Howard, the team was just granted a disabled player exception for the injured Danilo Gallinari, but I don't think that will move the needle in terms of the team signing Howard. I think if Brad Stevens wanted to, he could have signed Howard for the veteran's minimum, but instead he chose Blake Griffin. The Celtics seem content to stick with the bigs they have as they await Robert Williams' return.