Orlando's Dwight Howard has emerged as a star and a beast inside -- and the scary thing is, he's only 21

	Dwight Howard is among the league leaders in rebounding and shooting percentage. Bill Frakes/SI

By L. Jon Wertheim, SI.com

The coach. The teammate. The general manager. The opposing center. The p.r. guy. Unprompted, they all use the same phrase to describe Dwight Howard, the Orlando Magic's rapidly ascending star. He is a "manchild."

The man part? That we get. For starters, Howard's physique is all man, a 6-foot-11 frame wrapped in 265 pounds of muscle that recalls a melding of Shaquille O'Neal and Karl Malone. As one Orlando executive puts it, "It's as if he had cantaloupe implants in his deltoids."

There's nothing juvenile about Howard's game, a devastating -- unprecedented, even -- mix of brute force and quickness, a center's heft married to the staccato footwork of a point guard. And he has a measured perspective that belies his years. Asked what he likes best about the NBA, Howard pauses. "All this lifestyle stuff is nice," he says, motioning around the lobby of a chi-chi hotel in Indianapolis, where Vivaldi wafts in the air and the sofas cost more than most cars. "But the basketball and competition and the improvement is what matters."

The child part is less apparent. Though he turned 21 in December, Howard cuts a mature figure, dripping with polish and poise. He is the youngest player on the Magic roster, but his best friend on the team might be 35-year-old forward Bo Outlaw. Even the small touches -- the firm handshake, the eye contact -- suggest someone free of the arrested development that is so endemic in the NBA. It is the rare emerging young A-lister who not only claims to be more concerned with his rebounding than his scoring, but then backs it up with his play. By the way, that 21st birthday, a milestone that begs for youthful indiscretions? Howard celebrated by... going out for steaks with his family. "Mature is an understatement," says Orlando general manager, Otis Smith. "Dwight really understands the bigger picture."

Thriving with a mix of defense, depth and opportunistic play, but owing largely to Howard's emotional and professional development, the Magic have -- presto, change-o! -- levitated into the playoff picture in the depleted Eastern Conference. A franchise a decade removed from winning so much as a postseason series, Orlando is 28-31 heading into Friday night's game in San Antonio, a half game behind the Nets for the East's final playoff berth. As for Howard the Manchild, he was touted as an early MVP candidate and was named the NBA's Player of the Month for November, when the Magic went 12-4 and Howard had three games of at least 20 points and 20 rebounds. Orlando has struggled since, losing 17 of its last 23 games, but Howard still ranks third in the league in rebounding (12.2 per game) and field goal percentage (59.9) and 14th in blocks (1.85), all the while averaging 18.1 points.

"He's already a dominant player, and he's still learning his way out there," says Bulls coach Scott Skiles. "Watching him progress, it's scary to think you have to face him for many years. As you can tell, I'm a big fan of his."

In a league filled with guards prone to trying to soar among the giants, and "bigs" who feel compelled to show off their chops for long-range shooting, Howard suffers no identity crisis. He knows who he is. He does his scoring mostly by dint of basic post moves, rebound put-backs and the kind of dunks that are usually executed only during timeouts by overly exuberant men using trampolines. Ten feet is pressing the upper limit of Howard's shooting range, so he doesn't venture there. He's still grasping the nuances of playing with his back to the basket, so he usually catches and faces up. "It's so impressive to me that he understands his boundaries and stays within them," says Will Perdue, the former NBA center and now a Magic radio analyst. "When those boundaries grow -- and they are growing all the time -- look out."