Stars Collide: Magic’s Dwight Howard, Lakers’ Kobe Bryant ready for NBA finals stage

Stars Collide: Howard, Kobe set for NBA title tilt

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.”

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.

But Bryant, who maintained a stone-faced look throughout his interview session, doesn’t feel he needs a post-Shaq championship for his legacy.

“Not at all,” Bryant said. “It means nothing. To me, it’s about winning another one, just because I want to win another one. “People think Shaq would have won a championship without me on that team. They’re crazy.”

O’Neal, a 7-foot timeline connecting finals appearances by both franchises, posted a message on his Twitter feed saying he was pulling for Bryant.

“I am saying it today and today only,” Shaq tweeted. “I want kobe bryant to get number four, spread da word.”

Bryant said he and his teammates have learned from last year’s Boston massacre, when they were beaten in Game 6 by 39 points. This time, the focus, the drive, everything will be different with the Lakers.

“We’ve been through this hoopla,” Bryant said.

Los Angeles would seem to have everything — history, experience, star power, coaching, A-List celebrities — over Orlando.

The Lakers have won 14 titles. Orlando, 0.

The Lakers have won 61 finals games. Orlando, 0.

Jackson has nine championship rings. Orlando’s Stan Van Gundy 1 — but he got it as an assistant and doesn’t know where it is.

Even Van Gundy poked fun at himself while comparing resumes with Jackson.

“The guy has won more playoff series than I have playoff games,” Van Gundy said. “You’re talking about one of the greatest coaches, if not the greatest coach, in the history of the NBA and I’m here for the first time. It’s not a coaching matchup, it’s a team matchup.”

The Magic won both meetings between the teams during the regular season.

“They’ve beaten us three of the last four times,” Bryant said. “So we’re very, very concerned.”

They should be.

Howard, the league’s defensive player of the year, is getting better by the touch on offense and is coming off a 40-point, 14-rebound performance in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals when the Magic sent LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers home in a huff.

Pay too much attention to Howard inside and the Magic make opponents pay by knocking down 3-pointers. They made 62 of them against the Cavs and are averaging 8.6 per game in the postseason.

Orlando has knocked off the favored Celtics, Cavaliers and can now dispatch the Lakers.

No team has ever beaten three 60-win teams in the same postseason.

Howard thinks the Magic can nail the trifecta.

“I like our chances of winning this series,” he said. “If we defend, rebound and run, we should have a title.”