I have seen Superman fly.
I have seen him run faster than a Speedy Claxton and leap Tim Duncan in a single bound.
Dwight Howard has done more than don a red cape for the Orlando Magic. The 22-year-old center has led the team to its first division title in 11 years.
But Superman may accomplish one feat very few have done before him.
He hopes to break one of the great sports curses this April by leading his team out of the first round of the playoffs for the first time since 1997.
That year, the Curse of the Big Aristotle (or Shaq Fu; it has many names) struck Orlando.
The Magic have ranged from mediocre to downright bad ever since Shaquille O'Neal bolted for the Los Angeles Lakers in the summer of 1997.
Players were traded just before their prime (see Chauncey Billups). Draft picks went wrong (see Reece Gaines) - or did not come to the United States at all (see Fran Vazquez). And superstars got injured (see Grant Hill).
The Curse of the Big Aristotle has plagued Central Florida sports fans hungry for a repeat of the team's 1995 NBA Finals run. Orlando has been to the playoffs seven times in the past 11 years, but failed to make it out of the first round every time.
Excuse me if I do not cry when Boston Red Sox fans moan about having been victimized by the Curse of the Bambino for 86 years. At least Boston won two titles in the past 11 years.
But the Red Sox proved in 2004 that curses can be broken.
And it took a superman of their own to end the stretch of long-time suffering.
The legend of David "Big Papi" Ortiz will stand out in the annals of Boston lore - right up there with Paul "Two if By Sea" Revere - after Ortiz delivered clutch hit after clutch hit in the epic four-game comeback in the 2004 American League Championship Series against the hated New York Yankees.
To break a curse takes a Superman.
"King" LeBron James put the Cavaliers on his back to take the franchise to its first NBA Finals in 37 years in 2007.
"His Airness," Michael Jordan, turned a lackluster Chicago Bulls franchise into a dynasty.
2008 Woodie Awards
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