“I Could Beat Jordan” - Dwight Howard BREAKS Silence On Rumors, Diddy & LeBron, Locker Room Drama

you against Mike, who wins? It's a tough one. That is a very tough one. As a teammate, who did you prefer as a teammate, LeBron or Co? Man, he is a character. Don't you think the guy that's the face of the league has the authority to call the Lakers and say, "Guys, don't get rid of him. Don't get rid of him." I mean, you have to have these conversations together. It's like water under the bridge. Like, why even ask him? Oh, so the elbow was intentional. It wasn't accidental. When I say Kobe is the [ __ ] was defending and some words exchanged and emotionally and mentally I was fed up and at the time Nike said I didn't have a personality. Things like that can cause somebody to mentally check out. If somebody offers a contract and did would you go back? Charles, it's got to be one of the top 10 best personalities. Shack look at your shack. Now this guy's either straight, he's gay, he's bisexual, he's fooling everybody. You're not gay at all. Ain't no party like a D party. Dwight, stop it. 30 seconds. Did you ever think you would make it? [Applause] Adam, what's your point? The future looks bright. My handshake is better than anything I ever saw. It's right here. You are one of one of this. All right. So, for those of you that enjoy the sports interviews that we do, we got a special one in the house here, the one and only Dwight Howard. Three-time defensive player of the year, number one draft pick, first round. The guy came in, he dominated the league, one of the most exciting players to watch. I think I remember when I would just tell him right now body human specimen. You would see this guy jumping out and doing what he was doing. Um first I think the youngest player ever to do 2020, right? 20 points, 20 rebounds. Just found that record for the most dunks ever in the career in the NBA. No one's dunked the game dunked the ball more than Dwight Howard. Made a ton of money. I think you lived in a small house, small 35,000 foot house. You know, it's just you got you got to be able to find everybody that's living in that place. got 750 acres of land, animals, different things. Was on a reality TV show, what was it called? Special Forces back in the days with Mike Piaza, Scaramucci, bunch of different guys that were in it. And then uh for whatever reason wins the freaking championship with the Lakers and I thought you played such an important role and then all of a sudden we get the news. Why would you do this? The guy was such a good role player. Anyways, it's good to have you in the house here, man. Thank you so much. I am doing such I'm doing so amazing. I love it and I'm very grateful to be here. So, thank you. Oh, man. Yes. So, let's start off with that. Let's start as as a diehard Lakers fan. Okay. And you know, Lakers, if you're if you're a Laker fan, you're a Yankees fan, you're a, you know, Patriots fan, you're a Steelers fan, you're kind of spoiled. It's either you win or you don't, right? I mean, that's like the standard. Celtics is in the same category. You come on, the first time you come with Kobe and Nash, that doesn't work out. Okay, cool. You come the second time around and you're playing loose. You actually look like you're having fun. You're happy. You're like, "Hey, you come off the bench. I don't care. How do you need me? Put me in." They put you in. Boom. You're dominating. Playoff. You showed up in a in a major way. You guys want a chip. I sincerely, as a fan, thought they're going to sign him for probably two or three years. He's going to stay here and play this role. You're g you, it's tough to find guys like you in the league. You just can't find him. And then all of a sudden, boom, nothing happens. Yeah, that's what I felt. I was like, "Oh man, I come in and do my job. I'm secure in two more years." That's all I was thinking about. That's what I thought about. I was like, "Man, if I can secure two more years, that's it. I don't need to go nowhere. Where else? I can get me a small little crib in in LA. I already have my crib. 35,000. I have that at home." So, I was saying I don't need a big space, you just have something, you know, nice for me and my son and my daughter while we're there for the games and stuff like that, but then I can go back home. So, it's fine. But then when I got the the deal, like, you know, I think it it still hurts me a little bit to this day. So, you know, the stories we hear right from the outside. We're not on the inside. So, we don't know anybody in the Lakers organization, bus or any of these guys. Mhm. The story is, you know, LeBron fired a lot of coaches and LeBron will say, "I've never done anything to fire get coaches fired, right?" A lot of coaches get fired because of LeBron. Fine. You hear great players have that reputation and they go through it. I think Jordan even have it had it with Duck Collins back in the days if you remember when he's like, "Just shut up and give him the money." What did he say? Just just give him the [ __ ] ball, right? Remember when Duck Collins said that? So, get out of his way. Get out of his way. give them the so what what call did you uh what play did you call I just told everybody you know get the f out of the way so it's like it's kind of cool but do you win a champion Phil comes the rest is history how much of this was LeBron calling the shots to move on and how much of it you think it was management this one is so weird to know because I I don't know if it could be management because I'm like they're the ones who first brought me in uh but then I'm like it can't be LeBron because this is something that he wants if he wants to win so he's going to get the the best available pieces. So I'm like these were the best available pieces. Um so I really don't truly understand why none of us really came back the next year, especially those core guys who really I think got us over the top. You know, you got the Rondos, the Avery Bradley, who didn't even play in the finals or in the championship run in the in the bubble, but he was so significant all year. Avery Bradley and his defense was sex that, you know, bringing somebody like that from Celtics. Did he come from the Celtics? And he was a beast defender. It's tough to find guys like that. So, but why though? I mean, you have to have these conversations together to say Rondo to me, was Rondo a good locker room guy? Yes. All of us are like, just think about this. How could you say somebody is a cancer in the locker room? Uh, you going to call Draymond a cancer if he's mad that they lose and he goes off would never call him that. Kerr would never call him that. You know what I'm saying? So, you know, sometimes passion might look like uh ego to people on the outside when they see like a Demarcus in the locker room mad at his teammates or something or, you know, saying, "Hey, y'all got to step it up." You know, they might take that as this is his ego, but not seeing it like maybe this is only this is the only way he knows how to show his passion. I'm only using him as an example. Uh I can use myself as well. You know, there's been times where I've been labeled as a uh a locker room cancer because of my passion. You know, I'm not going to let nobody just run over me, but at the same time, I'm going to speak, you know, my mind, you know, and a lot of times in, you know, the the sports world, uh when you do speak your mind, uh you go out of what, you know, the team may want or, uh you can get penalized for it. You you played with uh uh Kobe and you played with LeBron and you played with both of them at their peak, right? Can I say that? Yeah, I think you play both, right? And Olympics. So, you were in 08 Olympics. That's right. So, the one where Kobe ran through Pal Gasol. Yes. Okay. So question becomes, you know, the the the the story with the Lakers when you play with LeBron locker room, are you getting the vibe where it's like, dude, this guy's happy for me to be here. We're meshing. Rondo's mission, everyone's meshing. If the Lakers win, don't you think the guy that's the face of the league has the authority to call the Lakers and say, "Guys, don't get rid of him. Don't get rid of him. Don't get rid of him." out. I I I'm pretty sure he does and I'm pretty sure he did. Um, you know, we'll never know if it was something personal or it was just, you know, they're moving in a different direction. Um, I don't think we'll ever really get a true and honest answer. Ask LeBron directly. Have you ever had a chance to ask? I haven't asked them. That's a good word to ask, but it's like at this point it's like water under the bridge. Like, why even ask him, you know? It would have been it would have been by the way he would have had a chance to have How many does he have right now? He's got four, right? So he wins two more. That's six. Michael 6, Kobe 5, Magic 5. That's like a good argument. You know, it's a good argument to ask because that would have put him in a complete different situation. That is true. Um but then again I think that uh we have had so many great players and greatness come through this league. we start to compare by using rings and you know I think it take away from a lot of the greatness that a lot of these players had because they wasn't as fortunate enough to win championships like a Jordan or you know LeBron did and have um a a brand push them to a whole another level. So, uh, Larry Bird or let's say, um, Clyde Drexler, even Scotty Pippen, these guys have the engine of Nike behind them or you know how Steph Curry has Under Arour and stuff like that. So when you don't have that boost behind you, sometimes you don't may you may not get the credit from the world because the eyes are not on you as much as it would be if you were with these companies. Who who were you with? Who was your I was with Adidas. You were with Adidas. Is there in the league a certain Are people frowned upon if you're with Adidas versus Under Armour versus Nike? Like is there clicks or not really? The shoes nobody gives a [ __ ] I don't think there's any clicks, but you know, usually like the Nike players have been with Nike since they've been young. You know what I'm saying? So, it's like I was with Adidas when I was in high school. So, I end up signing with Adidas. Oh, so you had Adidas from high school. Yeah, my AU team was sponsored by Adidas. And that's how usually guys stick with their whoever they were with, you know, in high school and coming up. So, that's why I'm saying they got an engine behind them. So, did you ever meet like have you ever seen a movie Error? Uh, is that what how they explain the whole Nike situation? Jordan situation. Just a little bit. I don't know. So, no, dude. You would love it. It's a sick movie. It breaks down the dynamic so well. Mhm. It's so I watched it. There's only three movies I watched three times in the first week. This is one of them. Wow. Three times in the first week. You took our entire company. I took the I took not only my insurance company, I took these guys myself three times in the first week. It's that sick of a movie. But there's a scene where Matt Damon is playing Sunny Sunario. And he's telling Michael Jordan's mother on what to ask from Converse, what to ask from Adidas, Adidas, and then before you do anything, come with us Nike. When you were going through your shoe deals, was there any stories that you met with Nike, you met with everybody else, or was straight up you just went to Adidas, didn't meet with anybody else? Um, my dad um was talking to uh Nike with uh my agent and at the time Nike said I didn't have a personality which was crazy. Um and I think that's why didn't say that that's why I end up going with Adidas. Nike literally told your dad and your agent you don't have a personality. Yeah, that's what it was. This was at 18 years old though. This is when I Yeah. Before I coming out of high school. And they made no offers. I don't even think they made an offer at that point. Later on, did they ever try to poach you from Adidas or No? No. Anybody else? I did. I had another shoe company um that I was with. It was called Peak. It's a Chinese shoe company. And uh they actually owe me a lot of money, but it's a Chinese company, so like you can't really like if something happens in the States and you have to try to fight it in China, you're not going to win that battle. Did you Did you ever play out there or No. Did you ever play in China? I played in Taiwan. How was that? It was amazing. I stayed there for eight months and um played in Taiwan. Um, by the time I left Taiwan, uh, we were talking about making my own basketball league and, um, now I have a league that plays in Taiwan, plays in Thailand, uh, Macau, Hong Kong, uh, couple places in Philippines, and they have a a team in China as well. And so, they travel to these different parts. We called it the Asian tournament. And, uh, I was just so happy that I got a chance to play in Taiwan. And it it it really was very beneficial to my health. Health? Yes. Mental health? Oh, mental health. Yeah. The way they treated you, like gratitude, excitement, enthusiasm, or that that was a big part of it. But I would just say like um playing in the NBA for a very long time can, you know, you could get mentally, it could be mentally ill for you sometimes. you get kind of feel real, you know, depressed or sad about some things sometimes because in the NBA you're it's it's a high it's a highly energetic uh sport. You're spending a lot of energy, a lot of time you're moving from city to city. Everything is a whirlwind, you know. So, a lot of times when players get out of that whirlwind or that fast-paced life and everything starts to slow down, you know, a lot of things look and feel and seem different. You know, a lot of guys go through problems and issues during those stages. And, you know, a lot of players in different sports as well. Um, three to five years after they're done, some of them, you know, have gone bankrupt. Uh, they don't know what to do when they're finished playing. Uh so for my time in Taiwan, it was like it's like Red Bull, you know, that gave me so much energy, you know. I feel so much peace, you know, being in the city, you know, um just just living life and learning so much about the culture, you know, which was amazing. I was like, man, I want my kids to come over here. This is such a great place. So, I end up getting my goal card over there for business. So, my kids can come now. Wow. Wow. Mom and dad, family can come at any time and start business over there and do things like that in Taiwan. Uh well, at that point I was going every summer and when I was uh 18 all the way up until about I would say 34 35 I would go to Asia and do a tour uh every summer. Wow. China was good for your mental health is what Taiwan sorry Taiwan my apologies. Mental health just for a second. You know, we Ricky Rubio, I believe, retired from the NBA due to focusing on his mental health. We've seen what's happened with Dante West. Yes. I don't know if you ever played with this guy. I think there was another guy got drafted by the NBA. What was his name? Couple years ago. Tyrell Terry before he even picked up the basketball retired due to mental health. There's a lot of I guess impression that athletes, especially on the court, oh, you could say whatever you want. Talk about your mom. Like even LeBron has had issues. talk about mental health in terms of playing on the court, off the court, how you deal with that. Well, because it's so much that goes into the game, you know, and now because the game is oversaturated with talent, um, with money, politics, and all that, you know, the the passion and the true joy of the game is being lost and taken away. So, a lot of the mental problems that you see, a lot of guys may be depressed cuz they play this game for one reason, then they might get on the court or with a team and they might not get a chance to play. Uh they might have to sit on the bench for a whole season. Things like that can cause somebody to mentally check out, can cause somebody to mentally not want to be available emotionally. You're, you know, off. All these things can happen. So, um I know for myself I just had to try to find a way to mentally stay present cuz when you allow those those moments to creep in, that's when you can get depressed and start thinking about like, man, this is this is a crazy life. I've I don't know who I can trust. I don't know who I can talk to. Um I don't know this person is in it for the right reason. All these different things have happened to I would say all of us players because when we play this game and we started to play the game, it was just really all about the love of the game. But then as we got older, we started to play in these different leagues and start playing for money and things like that, things like that. And that's when the whole politics and everything comes in and it kind of takes away from the joy. What was when when you when you were coming up like everybody you would get certain criticism right as players everybody gets it right what what criticism did you get that at this point you're like I think that was unfair I think this was fair the criticism like for example they would say Kobe was too hard right and he was too tough on his teammates and he would talk about leadership I was like oh he was just the driver he was this he was that like a what what is that one player who said my locker was literally right next to his locker Mhm. What was it? Swish. Swish. Parker is like, he's like, "Look, I mean, for one year, he said, "You don't realize it's literally right next to him. The guy would never talk to me, never asked me about my family, nothing. One time." Can you pull up this clip? I understand that. I had a moment with uh with Kobe where it was like uh we were in the locker uh locker room on the plane together during the Olymp not the Olympics but um uh during the season actually the year I was playing with the Lakers and Kobe uh where we were on the uh plane together. Um me and his family didn't really speak. Uh our locker room was next to each other um in Olympics but the All-Star game when we played on the same team, you know, he didn't speak. It's like he didn't want to uh be next to me at that time. So, it was it was a little, you know, weird, you know, cuz I'm like, dang, this this Kobe, my teammate, I looked up to him. I came out of high school. He came out of high school. He's a lot older than me. Um, but then again, you know, it could have been something like, hey, I'm trying to see where his head at, you know, and I never know. I'm a young guy at the time. I'm thinking like, why would my teammate not talk to me? Like, what did I do that was so bad? like, can we talk it out? You know what I'm saying? But um some people use different strategies and maybe that was his. Yeah. This is the clip. Rob, if you can play this. This is Swish Parker with Kobe Bryant. It was an overrated experience. I dealt with this man for two seasons and my my locker was here. His locker was here. I watched this man put on his shoes every day for work. The man never spoke to me. I wasn't the 12 man on the bench. I wasn't the the call up from the G- League. I started with this man. I was his coworker. Like we shared a cubicle side by side. How do you do that for two seasons and never hold the conversation? Never. What's up? Good morning. Do you need anything? You know, how's the family? Nothing. I shared a story about how I did try to talk to, you know, said, "Did you catch happen to catch the football game last night?" And he looked at me honestly looked at me and said, "You can't talk to me. You need more accolades on your belt before you come talk to me. He was dead serious. My time was So now that's Swish Parker. You're Dwight Howard. You know there's And I don't want to say anything about him. He was fun to watch. He was a He was a actually a actually fun. Swoosh was nice to watch played. He was tough. But your Dwight Howard three time defensive. You went to the finals with who were your teammates? You had Who was your point guard? Your point guard was exciting. Yeah, he was fun to watch. What was his nickname? He had a Mighty Mighty Mouse. Yeah. And you had Rashard Lewis who got a big contract. He was he was really nice. He was really nice. Turk was but but I mean you were you kind of like the face of the league for for a good three four seasons. You were uh you know one of those guys that you know people looked at and said something's going to happen with this guy. So it's different if he's like that to him. But you're coming like dude I've made money already. Right. you at when you're the Kobe's teammate, you've already made a couple hundred million dollars. You've already been, you know, to the championship. You've had that. How different was he with you versus how he was with him? Uh, I don't see I think that when I came in, you know, he wanted to do the the bad cop, good cop, you know, routine. Um, and the season kind of started off kind of bad. uh we didn't have the the the type of run that we thought we was going to be in the get beginning and stuff like that. So a lot of injuries Nash was out there. Yeah. Everybody was injured. That was a was a pretty nasty season. It was. And you know, so I think he went into like, oh, [ __ ] it. I'm going to go out here and try to score and do what I got to do because I'm not going to let my team, you know, this is my team down. And I understand that. Um, looking back on it, um, I think that we didn't give each other a chance. Um, I think that, um, I kind of the time where I I left, I'm like, man, you know, Kobe really don't want me here. You know what I'm saying? I should go somewhere where I wanted, you know? I remember that. Um, and that's how I felt at the time, you know, like, man, this dude don't seem like he really want me here, you know, cuz he's not helping me get better or but maybe he's probably like, if he want it, then he's going to approach it this way. You know what I'm saying? But, um, as a young player, you don't know how to approach certain things. cuz I'm only going by what I've done my whole life to get me to this point, which is if I'm not playing good or if I'm not where I want to be, I'm going to go get in the gym and and continue to get better. And the year we went to the finals before I played with the Lakers, I remember calling him um and asking him like, "What do I need to work on to get better?" And we had a good conversation. Yeah. And uh and this was when you're 18, 19 years old. Now, this was uh after we played them in the finals. So, I had a conversation 2009, right? You beat LeBron. Yes. I asked him what I need to do and um he said um work on uh like free throw line jump shots in mid-range. So, I started shooting and making a thousand shots a day. That was my thing cuz he was like, "Hey, I I take and make a thousand shots every day." So, I was like, "Okay, well, I'm going to add that into my workout." So I started doing um a thousand shots. Then the next year I was uh second MVP voter behind Derek Rose. What year is this? This was 2010. So you were right behind Rose. Yeah. When Rose won it, I was the I was second in voting that year. And um I just remember playing with Kobe. like I wanted to learn so much from him, but I I think I was expecting him to be like, "Hey, come over here. I'm going to show you this." And it should have been it could have been me being like, "Hey, let me go to him." You know what I'm saying? And kind of make that connection. So, for me, I was like, "I'm going to go to Chuck Person." He was uh our one of our big man coaches back then. So, I'm like Chuck P. Pacers Chuck Person, but he wasn't a big man. He was a small forward though. Do you He He was awesome. He's could really shoot the ball. He um he was a three-point shooter. So that year, actually the second half of the season, I don't know if people remember, um the second half of the season, I averaged uh we were we had our record was a lot better in the second half of that season with the Lakers. Uh due to me working with Chuck almost every single day after, you know, uh I kind of recovered from that year. I had tore my labum in my shoulder. I don't even think people understand how I was playing almost the whole season with a torn labroom. A torn. Most people have surgeries when they have a labroom tear. I continued to play. I think I missed like six games uh that season. Um every time I went up to go dunk the ball and somebody just slapped my arm like that, it felt like a somebody shot me with a shotgun and my arm just dropped. Who knew that? Who knew that? the team. Did the league know that that it was going on? The the league knew it was torn, you know. Uh so public this was announced. Yeah, this was, you know, I just kept playing through it and I remember the media going crazy. Did you talk to Kobe about your shoulder? And I'm like, why do I have to talk to my teammate about the status of my injury? Like I need to talk to the doctor so I let them know I can't play. And they're like, no, you got to tell him he got I'm like that's not cool. So, I think that they was putting so much animosity between us or you know that when I left and um we had that first game against each other with the Rockets, you know, you can see us drawing that. He's like, "Is that the elbow?" That's the Yeah. And I feel like Rob, can you play that clip? This one right here. Yeah. I feel like he was saying that because uh mentally he felt like I allowed all the BS to get in my head. What's he saying here? He was saying he saw and he said driving. I was like, "You know me, man. I know you." [Music] And so look at the score. Down 25. Look at the score. So I I I feel like with Kobe's down 25, we're kick kicking their ass. And it like this player right here is like, "Why is he doing this?" And I'm like, "All right, I'mma elbow you. Get off me." Oh, so the elbow was intentional. It wasn't accidental. It was intentional cuz first of all, we're winning by like I think you're up. We're up 25. It's the fourth quarter. I'm getting a rebound. It's like why are you pressuring me full court for for after rebound? And so I got one elbow. Then he comes back. So I throw another one just to like get him off and then we get into it. And I I I want to say he was doing that to say like I got you again. I got you out of your game. You're soft. observation. So, for me, like it's it's all about uh it's all about, you know, watching how people handle rooms, okay? And I'm watching dynamics because from the outside, you hear stuff and then you're in the locker room. You're in the locker room. So, you're in the locker room. Who's the coach? Phil is the co who Phil Jackson's the coach. Oh, I wish he was supposed to come and coach that year. We could talk about that. He was supposed to come and coach. We had if he wanted to do the 41 only home games and didn't want to go on the road. Is that the time? Well, see what happened was he had he had was about to have back surgery. He wasn't going to be able to travel and so he wanted to make sure that this doctor was was going to be okay with him coming back to coach. We had just literally talked right before they made the decision to bring in um Frank Vogle, wasn't he? The No, it wasn't Frank Vogle. It was um Mike Danton. It was Mike Danton. I literally was just talking to Phil The first time I was talking to Phil and he was like, "Dwight, I really want to coach you." Oh, I remember because he said, "We're going to average 140 points game a night." And we didn't need to do that. Yeah, we didn't need to do that. I do is beat people up. We got the greatest closer. You got the two biggest men in the paint, Palasaw and myself. Who's going to stop us? Like, but we tried to play a fast-paced game with older players. cuz I'm the youngest one and I just had back surgery and I just had a torn labroom. So why not slow the game down and play the pace that we need? We don't have to. Steve Nash doesn't have to go back. He just had back surgery. Coaches but but this the part dynamics. My interest is on the inside. So how many coaches coach you? Like if you put the big coaches you had Dan Tony who else coached you? St Van Gandhi. Van Gandhi Orlando. Um why can't I forget all my coaches right now? Um, uh, what's the black guy? What's this? He sounds like he really made an impact on you. He did. I can't take a mistake. Mike Brown, I'm so sorry. I know your coaches. Don't worry about it. You got this coaches. Oh my god. Brian Hill. When you watch him, when you guys are in a place where there's a lot of conflict. Okay. You don't hear a lot about Danton. What was Dantony's style of dealing with Kobe? Like, would he challenge him or he left Kobe alone? Uh, he would most likely leave him alone. thing. He wouldn't bother him. He wouldn't say too much to him. Like I mean he was more so chill, but I feel like it would feel our offense would have been in a better place. The triangle offense would have suited us better um because you can keep the one side clear if Kobe wanted to do his his thing and then that triangle that's going on in the other side of the court or whatever it may be. I felt like that would have been something half court offense for us would have been crucial. Teams wouldn't have been able to stop us in the half court. So by us trying to play the fast-paced game that wasn't us. And then I felt like I was at a place in my career where I needed to slow it down and get in the triangle so I can understand offense and how to to move offensively. A lot of times big man um they mature slower in the league because the game takes longer to slow down to them and I I was fortunate enough to play in different eras. So when I first came in it was back to the basket big. Um the lane was a lot more packed and stuff like that. boxes and elbows on defense and then it started to spread out you know year after year then to now was like threes and half court but you know so back then a big needed time Elijah one they was getting in their primes in their 30s their late 30s you know what I'm saying that's when they're in their primes cuz they're now the game is s slowed down so they can understand and see it more so I just felt like with a coach like uh Dan Tony the pick and roll and stuff was great for my Orlando time. So, I think that's why they got Nanton. Uh, but I felt for me to take that step to the next level, it was time for Phil. What was the difference? Locker room. Kobe locker room. LeBron locker room. You're in a locker room, game's done. You win, you lose, you had a sick game, you know, you showed up. What is the vibe in our locker room with Kobe versus LeBron? Is Kobe game's over, boom, he's gone? Or is LeBron, hey man, good job then? What's it? Oh, they both go We winning. They both live. Um, they both live in the locker room. Um, man, it's been so long with Kobe. Uh, that year was such an up and down year. Uh, when we had our wins, we we we was happy, but when we lost, we was pretty pissed. Uh, LeBron, man, he is a character. He's so funny. So, after the games, you know, he's going to His locker room is crazy. His locker room looks like your uh what is his backdrop here? The whole thing. He got everything. Got all the sho. He got like two lockers, shoes lined up, all the stuff. He got his special do-aggs, everything, you know. So, it's it's like the president's locker room. It's pretty nice. Yeah. So, he had the biggest locker room you saw out of all the players you played against. I mean, well, he just got two lockers. Most everybody get their one little spot, but I mean, it's LeBron two lockers. It would seem like I don't know if you could find this video of LeBron locker room Miami Heat. I mean, they did a whole dance. It would seem to me that Kobe is way more serious than LeBron. I even heard you say something to the effect of Kobe's kind of an [ __ ] but LeBron kind of wants to be liked. When I say Kobe, the [ __ ] Miami Heat thing. Yeah. He uh I've seen him like go off on, you know, autograph seekers, you know, for coming going Yeah. going crazy cuz it's late. He's like, "Why you guys out here this late?" You know, asking for autographs. So, man, he Yeah, I could see I've seen that side of him, but at the same time, you know, I've always heard that you have to be a certain type of way to make it in life, you know? So, I don't feel like he's that way with everybody. I feel like that when it's time to be that person, then he's going to be that person cuz he's trying to get to his goal, whatever his goal is, and he's not going to let nobody stop him. Who was who was uh uh between the two somebody like a favorite teammate? I'm not even going to I'll you know I'll ask you the other question next. But as a teammate, who did you prefer as a teammate, LeBron or Co? Uh it's a tough one. That is a very tough one. Um, I just feel like me and Kobe didn't give each other time um uh to really mesh and we was in a place where emotionally and mentally I was fed up with the things that had happened in uh Orlando that a lot of you know people don't know about. And I'm coming into this new situation like man I want to turn it all around. I'm in a new city, new place. I'm playing with one of the greatest players ever, but I just came out back surgery. I'm not even supposed to be playing this whole year. I was supposed to sit out the whole season when I came to the Lakers. Uh, but I came back in four months. I was supposed to sit out a whole year from my back surgery. They took out that much of my herniated disc, the largest that they ever taken out of somebody's back. So, I was supposed to miss significant time. came back early, then tore my labor room, continued to play, and we um we made it to the playoffs. That was the last time the Lakers had made it to the playoffs until I came back and we went to the championship. From 2013 to 2020, there was no playoffs for the Lakers. No. Yeah, I remember that. But that that's when he was averaging 354. That's when he had the streak of whatever eight or nine games of 40. But stay on this. So, teammate Kobe LeBron. Teammate, I'm going to go with um LeBron. I had my championship with him. Um we've had our longest run together. Uh so, I got to pick LeBron over over Kobe. But if you're an owner and you're drafting somebody and you have a your number one draft pick, who are you picking between the two to win? To win, knowing what I know now. Yeah. Oh, we Well, you got to go with LeBron. So, you still picking LeBron over Cob? I mean, knowing what we know. All right. So, if you're talking about longevity, longevity, if you're talking about um just uh overall not skill like how people look at skill, I'm talking about everything that encompasses basketball. Look what LeBron has done. Kobe has he has he has the most he's turned himself into the most skilled, but I don't think that he had the most talent. I think LeBron was so talented that he could play one through five. He could do football. He could do all these different things. I felt like Kobe mastered his skill on the court of basketball. He mastered bank shots. He mastered the pump fake, pump fake, turnaround, shoot. He mastered uh the bump phase. He mastered all the moves that Jordan did to the three. He mastered shooting with his left hand. You know, I think that then you look at LeBron, he just mastered everything that come with basketball off the court. you know, he's figured out how to manage that whole side, which most athletes, if you you you can see, they don't have uh the proper um resources or the proper team to do what he's done. He's his longevity just stands out to everybody. Okay. So, here's here's one for you. So, now that you got LeBron over Cove, do you have LeBron over Mike? No, you can't have him over Mike. Why? Why is that longevity? LeBron was longer than Mike, bigger than Mike, faster. He can play five positions. Michael couldn't play five positions. Michael was really a three positions, right? Why do I have LeBron? Why do I have Michael? LeBron. Yeah. Um I felt like he set the bar for everyone. So, uh he was the pioneer of it. So, I I got to have him. So, you draft pick. You're you're picking Michael over LeBron. I'm picking Michael Jordan. Okay. I want to be like my brother. That's a question for both of you. I got a question for both of you. Okay. It's actually very interesting because to me I also like a player that stays with a team like Dirk stayed, right? Cope stayed, right? You know, you had a few guys that stayed with the organization for for longevity wise. I don't know how many more players like that I can think about, but it's it's a few D. Wayade. Yeah. with my he ended up with Chicago, but he Chicago and Cleveland and they came back to the So change it up. Let's just say that your Lakers had a shitty year and they have number one draft pick. They pick LeBron. You think LeBron would have ever gone to Cleveland or anywhere else? Or you think LeBron would have stayed in LA? He would have stayed in LA. You think he wouldn't have gone to Cleveland to win one for them? Like you you think he would have still stayed in LA? Well, if he never started with Cleveland, he was number one draft pick. LA picks him up. They had a horrible year. Couple trades. They get back in and then boom, LeBron going to LA. I don't believe he would leave LA. You don't think he in LA? It's an interesting question to Not if he start with LA. I mean, if he starts with LA and he's LeBron James, the number one pick, he's coming in as everyone know who he's he is now. I don't see what would be the the the benefit of going somewhere else because this is the biggest team in the the the biggest this is a mark as marketing they're the biggest team in the NBA and the biggest fan base worldwide and nationally. Um so why would he want to leave and go somewhere else at that time? Yeah, but but but the only thing is like how much did it mean to him to go to Cleveland and win? Do you think he would have stayed 20 years without I think that there's a major part of LeBron and and look, I a lifelong Miami Heat fan. Like I know everything there is about the Miami Heat. That was my team. Uh when you guys beat them in the bubble, I mean you remember I was I mean I was living in Dallas at the time screaming and hollering, rooting for my guys out there. Jimmy was fighting Jimmy Butler. Jimmy Buck. Got to give him credit though. That guy's a fighter. But I think there's a a part of two parts. I think there's a part of LeBron that no matter what, he was going to try to get back to Cleveland and win something. Like when he left the he he left Cleveland in my opinion because they just couldn't assemble the pieces. He went to the Heat, you know, not one, not two, not three, four, five, they put together the super team, the Heedles with Wade and Bosch and um and then soon as he won, I think he won two out of four championships right back to Cleveland. I think he went uh one and two against Golden State. Yeah. Um so I think he did that and he did that. They're also, this is my opinion again, I think if you ask just any casual fan, they would have in specific order MJ, LeBron, Kobe. And I think that's undeniable. But there is a part of LeB uh of of Kobe that's almost romanticized because I mean, tragically died too soon, horribly. And because he stayed with the Lakers so long, he became this fan favorite. Like, he's not going anywhere. We all love Kobe. But let's not forget Shaq was the man in 2000, 2001, 2002. Like, it wasn't even a question. I think Shaq won all the MVPs. So, LeBron put everything on his back, took Cleveland to the finals, took the Heat to the finals, took the Cleveland back to the finals. What point are you making? My point is this. LeBron his legacy is a little bit more tarnished because he's sort of seen as like a ring chaser and you know kind of running around whereas Kobe is romanticized for staying with you still haven't answered my question breakdown. Tell me is he going to stay? He would have not stayed. He would have gone to Cleveland. I think so as well. So here's my question for you. But you're you're also a Kobe guy, not a LeBron guy. But no to me I'm a guy No, I look I like Okay, I'm looking at his draft year, right? Uh, OKA four. Okafa is number two. Gordon, you're first. Gordon three, he goes Chicago. Sean Livingston, by the way, if he doesn't get injured, that guy was a very interesting player, right? Very clean the Golden State. He would Yeah, I I don't think I ever saw him miss that, you know, the small shoot. I was like, what? The way he was. Devin Harris, Josh Childris, Lua Deng, he came to the Lakers. He had a $61 million contract the Lakers were stuck with. I'll never forget that. AI uh uh Egoda Jackson's Robert Swift Chris Humphre is your boy you know you were at his wedding so and you going down the list here right but imagine pick number 14 okay you get picked because you went to Orlando right at Rich Das that whole organization but say you go to the Lakers what do you do you stay you don't know what happens would you would you be with them for a while or would you still be like no I kind of want to go see what Atlanta's like you know I kind of want to go to see what this is like drafted from the Lakers. Lakers number one draft picker there. I got to stay. You got to stay. So that's how you process. I got to stay. I'm I'm with the the most story franchise. Not I can't take away I don't want people from Orlando saying, "Oh, but you left us." No, this is different because this is not year one leaving Orlando. This is year nine. I've already been in Orlando for eight years when I left. You know what I'm saying? So, um, and I think that kind of made it look like I was going at the fans or I wanted to leave because of the city and stuff like that. And why would I leave a team because of the city? It makes no sense. Um, so you would have stayed in LA. Would I have stayed in LA? I wanted to play with um, not play but be coached by uh, Phil. I thought that would have been big for for my development. Why though? Just purely for your development? Yes, because I grew up in a era of basketball where everything was quick. One, two dribbles, get to the basket, one dribble, finish, two dribbles, finish, three dribbles max, post ups, uh, pick, get seals and stuff like that. In this offense with field, I would be forced to, you know, do more fundamental fundamentally sound things. Catch it at the top of the key, get to the basket, make a move. We was going to It would have been interesting seeing how you would have done. He would have used in tri triangle offense to get me easier shots to get Kobe easier shots to save our legs and our body. So when we play later on in the season, we'll still have the same bounce, the same. Do you think triangle offense was would work with big centers? I guess he would cuz he had shack, right? We played it in high school. I played the triangle in high school. Who was your coach? My coach was Courtney Brooks. Was he ever under text winner or how did he pick up triangle offense? He just got it because he my goal was to go to the NBA and I remember my 11th grade year um we watched Shaq destroy uh the Philadelphia 76ers and the Kimbe Mumbo rest in peace um Kimbe u but we watched I watched at this camp I was in this leadership camp um Shaq elbow Matt Guyger and the Ken Bay Mutumbo in the chest Yes. And dunk on them every play. And so after watching that, my coach was like, "We need to run triangle. I got to get you ready for the lead." You learned triangle offense. We was doing the triangle offense in high school. Dude, that's not an easy offense for a coach to pick. How long did it take for you guys to get it down? It must have taken months. Yeah, it did. But once we got it, it was it was easy cuz nobody there is no point guard. Like it's you're always always Yeah, it's always in awe. Stop it. You don't need any sort of offense when you're in high school. You're the best player in the country. They throw you the ball, you win the state championship. You don't you don't run the offense. Get out of Very good point. By the way, stop. What were your numbers in high school? Like what kind of What was your biggest game ever in high school? Biggest game I almost had 50, but my coach took me out because he didn't want me to disrespect the other team. He felt like it was getting too disrespectful. And I was upset about that cuz I wanted to have a 50 ball. Like that's like who does not want to have 50 points in a game? And I saw the fact that you had the offers from Duke. Who was it? Carolina. Who else was there? Every school. Every like I I was just telling my kids the other day I had a tub about probably uh a tub this big. This wide, I'm sorry, this long. Uh probably about this wide. three or four tubs filled with letters from every school in America when I was in high school trying to get me to come to their school and I was like man there's no way I can choose a college I want to ever tempted at all to go to school was ever like tempted at any college meet with you and convince you to say you know what I deans I mean 04 who's 04 that was UNCC was anybody able to get you to at least think about it got me to go come to a official visit to UNCC. That was the only school I did an official visit with. Um cuz my goal was to go out um to the NBA and be the first pick out of high school. That was one of the goals that I written down um with my dad to be the first pick in the NBA draft. So I was like, I can't go to college if this is my goal. And um I did a visit at UNC. When I got there, I was like, h this ain't really for me. I think if I go to college, um, I'm going to get in a lot of trouble. In what regard? Partying and not partying, but the ladies. Yeah, it was a lot. It was a lot. But then, you know, I went to the NBA. It's even more. So, it's like that don't even make sense. What are you talking about? It was only a finite one in college. NIL today, would you have gone to college or you're still going straight in? Would NIL made a difference for you or not at all? Uh, no. I probably would have still You would have still come in. Okay. So, you talking about Lakers, you say if I go to the Lakers, I'm gonna stay with them for 20 years, you know, not 20 years, but I would be a lifer with them. So, I remember, okay, when I'm at PF Chens, me and this guy named Araj were debating between you and Binham. Mhm. I wrote about Binham in my book, Your Next Five Moves. He's in a book. Anyways, and I said, and I I'm like, he says, "No, I'm picking Binham." I said, "Why? Binham's got more finesse, soft touches." I said, "Dude." I said, "I get it. I just don't know if Bayham loves the game because to me I think Bayham was a big guy coach saw picked him up but when I watch him play the game I don't know if he loves this game remember the issue he had two years when he went through I don't know where is it Philadelphia I think he did play the game but see I think that was a that was him I don't I don't know him personally but I want to say that probably was him acting out a little bit like he played he came from high school He went and played one of the greatest players ever in basketball with Kobe. No, he's talking about Shaq when he went up against talking about No, I'm talking about I'm talking about Kobe. He played with one of the best players ever. I'm thinking you're saying the game where he went against Shaq and he was he was he didn't back down. Yeah. But see, he while playing with one of the greatest players ever, he's probably getting ridiculed and all these different things. So, as at a at a young age, he's like, "Man, I watched this guy growing up. you know, I was a baby when Kobe was, you know, in the league, all these different things. Now he's playing with him. And now when his his idol is probably yelling at him and going off on him, that probably put him in a place like, dang, like I'm not I'm not worth. I'm not worthy or I'm not feeling this. Like, I came here to get better, but how can I grow if I'm um number two or number three behind Kobe or You got to think he's a young guy. He want to shine, too. So, Um it's that's pretty tough. But you you know you make a point because there there are uh um like for example Nick Sabin comes into the NFL doesn't do well goes back to college kills. And then you have guys that go from NBA college they come back to the NBA or whatever NFL whatever pro you want to say. So what's the difference? If I go to college I'm dealing with greenies. So Nick Sabin didn't have a problem with development and kind of taking young guys and building them up. It's not easy because you're more distracted, more, oh my god, girls, you know, partying, all how do I get these guys to stay locked and come to the gym early? Don't drink, don't smoke weed. It's a different mindset that you have, right? So, it's almost there's certain players like if I was a team owner and I got Kobe as my superstar, dude, I'm going to be like, Kobe, don't kill this new draft pick, bro. It's almost like I'm sitting there thinking to myself, what's the point of having a number one draft pick that comes here that Kobe's going to kill him for two or three years? let the guy go get his ass kicked and then let me bring him here three, five, six, seven years later. Like I think that's that versus and I think I put Michael in that as well. Michael had a hard time when the whole cat story with Yeah.Wami or even you know the the Horus Grant and and U Scotty because I think Horus was an 87 draft 88 draft and it's back toback they come in and he almost pushed them out but then they were able to get acclimated and then they won those three chips together. But to me, I I think about that the part I think about with you and I I I thought about this was the reason why you left. And please correct me if I say this because I followed you very closely and I was one of the guys that was very excited when it came to the Lakers the first time around, not second time around because first time around I thought it was going to be like Yeah. dominance, right? Me and Kobe. There was a there was and I haven't seen this thing since it happened. So, whatever year you came, you'll remember this where they're showing your they've already announced they've signed. You're in the office with Cupch. I want to say the GM and he is pointing out all the rafters, right? I don't know if you remember this. And he says, "Look at the history of big man that we've had here, the great Will Chamberlain, Kareem, Bill Jabar, Shaq, and maybe one day you." Something like this. I don't even think you're going to find this. I don't think you're going to find this clip at all, but I'm certain you remember something like that that happened. And I watch your body language. And I watch it. I'm like, I don't know if that put unnecessary pressure for you to play loose. I don't know if it made you nervous. I don't know if it made you because cuz there's a difference playing in Orlando Magic, right? No one expects you to win. So if you win, you're god. But you come to Lakers, it's like, dude, no one expects you to lose. You better win or else get the hell out of our city type of a mindset. Right. Right. Did that at all shake you up a little bit when Mitch Cupchuk did that? No. I I loved it cuz I was like, man, this is why I play. Like Will Chamberlain's my all-time favorite player. I never got a chance to see him play, but he was my all-time favorite player. I had this robot when I was young. He used to always say Will Chamberlain. Will Chamberlain. And I was like, man, who is Whit Chamberlain? And he said he scored 100 points. And so the robot was like chat GPT back in the day. So that's cool. Um that's how I fell in love with Wood Chamberlain being my favorite player cuz he was the strongest, he was the fastest. I had the robot was telling me all these crazy stats about him that was outside of basketball. So that's why, you know, I wanted to meet Will Chamberlain. They used to call him the Big Dipper cuz he used to had to duck his head. Did you ever meet him? No. I didn't get a chance to meet him. But when I first moved to LA and played out there, I stayed in Prince's old house. Uh 2131 and 31 is it 21 31 31 21. Yes. Uh Antello um Drive. He actually has an album called So 3121 or something like that. Antel um should be Prince's Old House or something like that. Well, yes, that's Prince's Old House. Yes. What a memory. You remember his address? Yeah, that's the house I stayed in. So, how many times did you go to Prince's house? Well, I lived there. That was Oh, you live That was your So, you bought it from him? I got that that house. I lived there for the time I played for the Lakers and then right next to my house looks sick. Will Chamberlain's house. So, that's how I was so happy. Yes. Get out of here. Yes. The house that he stayed in, his roof will open up like the bedroom roof. He had it to where it could open up. You can see the stars at night. So that's awesome. You met first talked to him or met met with he was already gone by then. So I was like you came to league in04. He died in I think 1999 and he was already this robot of yours this pre- chat GBT thing. There's one story about Will that everybody knows about. 20,000 that's not real. Okay. There's allegedly a story that Will Chamberlain has slept with over I thought it was 10,000 women. 20,000,000. Listen, you'll lose count after a couple thousand. I don't think it's possible. What do you think is accurate there? Hurt Shaq on why Will Sherman saying he had sex with 20,000 women as a lie. You had meeting 20 women a day. What do you think was accurate with that? I mean, listen, I've seen how NBA players roll. Okay, so let's let's do it like this. Back then, there was no um teams were flying chartered planes. I mean, where they were flying um they were taking buses. Yeah. Or they were taking regular planes. When would he have time to meet how many women a day? 20 women a day to sleep with him. Listen, man. You make the time, Dwight. You make the time if it's a priority. Okay, but still, there's no way he could play basketball, practice, and sleep with 20 women a day. I don't think that our I don't think that we have enough inside of us to go out 20 times. By the way, it's funny you're saying this because I remember the one interview that he did. Okay. He said he embellished it. But have you seen the interview where I Rob, can you pull up some of the interview? It's not the 20,000 women. Of course, you know, Shaq even says that's that's crazy to be able to do that. It's a crazy number. But but type in type in uh Will Chamberlain max bench press. Okay. Max bench press. I mean this guy strong. Yeah. But the stuff just play that first clip. Just play that first clip. Watch this. Can you go back a little bit with audio or you don't have it? No, I can't. Okay, go for it. I mean, I'm a guy bench pressing around 600 lb. When I was at my 600 lb. I mean, I'm a guy bench pressing around 600 lb. So, he says he bench pressed 600 lb. He says his vertical leap claim was what? 48 in. Okay. On some interviews, he said his vertical leap was 60 in. Right. He says he says he squatted 1,000 lbs. Damn. That's the claim that he made that he did. This is it. Watch this. He claimed he had a 48 inch vertical. Okay, which that's Michael Jordan status. He claimed he squatted. Just happened Will Chamberlain squat. Okay, Will Chamberlain squat claims. Okay, he says he squatted. Do you see the stories there? He said he squats a,000 pounds. You can ask it on Chad GBTC what it says. Has the same exact thing. He claims he was with 20,000 women. You know, he claims he did all this stuff. How much of it was he was just either psycho competitive or you know a slight like uh exaggerating what he really did? I think he was embellishing a lot. I think he was exaggerating a lot of different things. Um I could see him squatting a lot of weight. I could see him running very fast. I don't know about a,000 pounds. I could see him doing a a bench press. I I I have talked to um Arnold Schwarzenegger and uh we was in um Go's gym out in uh what's that? Santa Monica. Venice Beach. Ven Beach. It's the one that open in the back. It's sick. It's beautiful. DVD's old stomping. I saw him. It's like everybody get down. Do it now. I was just with Chamberlain. I saw him lift 2,000 pounds. But I saw That's not a bad Arnold. But I saw I did see um him there. He did talked about how strong Wilt Chamberlain was. He said the strongest person. You got Will um um you got Arnold who's always lifting weights saying how strong he was. I don't the 20,000 sounds crazy to me. I could see him doing some crazy weights. I talked to some players who played against him back in the day. There was one guy who said so it's so crazy. He said, "We'll dunk the ball one time so hard that when he dunked the ball and it hit somebody, the ball hit somebody's foot from the rim and it broke the person's foot." I said, "Get out of here." Like, "Yeah, y'all are just making stuff up." This is what Conan the Barbarian with uh Arnold and in the middle. Look at even if the 20,000 is not true, a a lot of people think that that's 90% over inflated even if it's 2,000 women. What are your thoughts on that many? Uh, that's a lot of energy. That's a lot of You're bringing on a lot of energy to yourself. Um, but again, back bottle up that energy, use it on the court, but back in the day, I mean, it was probably a lot cleaner in life than today. Than today. Um, they were doing a lot of parties like uh what was the big party they used to have back then? That was like Coachella. Coachella. Yeah. Well, he follows at Studio 54 with Rick James, who was my favorite, so I could see him doing a lot of stuff. Yeah. You what? You were you were fairly one of the biggest guys yourself. Oh, is this it? This is it. 40 yard dash and 46 vertical leave. This one says F. He ran a 100 yard dash in 10.9 seconds. I mean, you see the stuff that you read about this, but what's the most you ever benched? What What was your Well, I did was it 475? You benched 475. Like that's sick with those arms, bro. To be that big. Yeah. My my uh my many reps I did was three I did 315 24 times. Get out of here. Yeah, this one I was combine is 25 20 times is a big deal. I was trying to bench press every day. Like what did you say? You did 315. How many? 305. 24. 315 was 24 times. Holy [ __ ] And then what was your vertical leap? My vertical leap was 39. 39. Okay. Kobe's was 38. Uh uh when you you hear that his vertically was 38, you're saying that's tough. You think he was he wasn't 38? No, I was just saying anything anything in the high 30s to 40s is really really good. No matter how tall and Jordan had a 48, I want to see this. If Jordan really had a 48, that mean he's touching the top of the backboard. I've touched the top of the backboard and I've touched higher. I'm ding on a 12 foot 7 foot goal. If Jordan had a 48 inch vert, he should be sitting on the rim. He should be able to turn around and sit on the rim. That's what they call Jordan. But I'm saying it's no way he had 10 feet would be 120 ft. So even if you're up 48, if we do the math, he's 66. So if he's 66, let's just say 48, you got 120. He got He can be He can be, you know, he got to be touching the top of the backboard. So you're saying you don't think Mike had a 48? No way. Well, you think Spud Webb had a 48, 47? Spud Webb. You remember Spud Webb from the Atlanta Hawks? I do remember Spudweb, but they're saying Michael Jordan has the highest vert ever. Okay. It's got to be some Gatorade like Nike type we're going to pay to make this seem this. Have you seen the pure fake leap? Can you type in what was spud's vertical leap? Spud vertical leap. He was 46 to 40 46. Yeah, there's spud at 57 48 in ver I feel like those are wilt lies. Okay, now call us a lie. All right, but stay on this. So if we're going to go and say wilt lies, what's more likely? What's more likely? The fact that Mike had a 48 inch vertical leap or the fact that Bo Jackson's ran a 41940. What's more likely a lie? Oh, Bo knows football. I'm going to go with Michael Jordan with the 48 in. So you said Mike's a lie. Bo did it. Yeah, Bo had that ball head, man. He was fast. What you mean both? This is crazy. So Dwight now, so what do you think was Michael's vertical leap? If you're saying 48 is that impossible, what do you think about? Just saying that's so crazy. He's 2 in off of 50in vert Michael Jordan. That's so insane. I know he did have some crazy dunks, but 48 in mean he's touching the top. Okay, now we're going to a different place. So, what's up y'all? This your boy Dwight Howard aka the Hall of Fame Superman in the building. If y'all want to connect with me, ask me any question, just go to Man and I and I got all the answers for y'all. Yeah, I can tell you how many women Will Chamberlain and all that was just fake. But guess what? I got all the expertise. Basketball, chess. If you want to learn how to do Snapchat, if you want to learn to get that jump shot silky smooth like me. If you want the fresh fade with the nice hair, come check your boy out. We got expertise in a lot of areas. Remember, man, and connect. I'll see y'all there. Peace. So, let's say dunk contest. Dunk contest. You against Mike, who wins? Me. I got to go with myself. Dwight, stop it. What do you mean? What did Michael Jordan Scotty Pippen did a better free throw line dunk than Michael Jordan? Look it up. Shots fired. Look it up. Look it up. Look at Look at Michael Jordan's uh greatest poster of NBA. But watch Scottie Pippen. I bet he went further. Watch Scotty Pippen. I bet his jump is further his further back. Yeah. And he's fully extended. Well, Scotty's also got those mids. You know, a lot of times they talk about how big Jordan's hands are. Have you Scotty's chance? Have you Scotty don't win without I mean Michael don't win without Scotty? Let's do it. You don't think? Did he win without him? Well, did did Scotty ever win without Michael? But Michael was supposed to be the man. This this is the one you're talking about. So, let's see this. Watch what he take off. This isn't a dunk contest. But Scotty never won a dunk contest because he didn't have the whole Nike. He didn't have the showmanship. No, he didn't have Nike behind him like Jordan did. Ah, the crowd. What was Scotty's shoe? Was it Converse or was he Was he Adidas? Watch how easy he did this from the free throw line. Look how easy he Watch Jordan's dunk from the free throw line. Only because Jordan has a ball head and he has shorter shorts on. Wait, how are you going to start hating on Michael Jordan on the podcast right now? I hate it. I love He got the short shorts. He got the gum chewing. He got the ears. look like he's about to go. He got 50 gun. Jerome Kersy was fun to watch. Blazers. Let's see this. Look at the walk though. Smooth, effortless. Boom. No, he pumped. No, he he he brought it back. Dwight. Dwight. But you have to give credit where credit's due because you'll understand this better than maybe anybody. Showmanship counts. When did he do that with Showmanship counts? Did the same the whole deal. He was just darker than Pippen. Okay. So, what do you think his vertical leap is? Vertical. You put on a cape. You you know about showmanship? Yes. What? Okay. What was a show about that? He did the exact same dunk that Scotty Pippen did. Dude, there's no way. Scotty basically acted like he was just walking through the park and jumped out and he did the same thing. That's MJ and then they just got better pictures. You know who else did that? So did Brent Barry. Do you remember when Brent Barry died from the without his um What's the difference between Brent Barry and Scotty? I tell you the colorings. Jordan. The colorings. Jordan is so didn't even take off his sweats. That's That's what I'm saying. Nobody's expecting him to do this. And this is expect forward a little bit. All right. So, we just You just said you would beat Michael. Yes. My prime dunks. I had more dunks than Michael for the dunk contest. Go ahead. Let's see. This year, he got the windmill from out the paint. Oh, he doesn't even dribble though. No, there's no way. This is not even It's not in the same way. It was in the wrong city. Where was that at? San Antonio. You know, Charles Barkley loves San Antonio. But go going back for you with Alonzo Morning right here. Going back to you with So you think you beat Michael in a dunk contest? Yeah. Okay. What did Michael do in the dunk contest? He did the free throw line dunk and the windmill from sick from outside the paint. That's easy. He beat Dominique Wilkins which close to Dominique won those but they gave it to Mike. Oh, you're saying it's a conspiracy. You're going to say because of Nike. Yes, Nike cannot see somebody else like they cannot see somebody else outside of Nike winning. They have to have another. So, who was Dominic Wilkins shoe contract in that, you know, dunk contest and who was uh Scotty's shoe contract? Let's see this. Wasn't Nike. So, he was Reebok. And then who was uh chose wisely. Who was uh Scotty Pippen shoe contract? Who was it? Earlier this year was a deal with Aia. I don't even know who that is. Then it was with Nike. Then he went. So later on he he went with Nike. What he did? So what do you think? Mike Mike's uh vertical leap. It's not 48. I I mean he probably got a good 42. So he's got a 42. Yeah, but you're saying a 48 is so high. Who's the highest you ever saw? You played with a lot of guys. Did you ever see anybody where Did you ever watch Shannon Brown? Did you ever see some of these? Vince Carter, Tracy McGrady. Me and Vince did a dunk contest privately. Yes. Who won? He not going to say it. He not going to say it. But we both did this crazy dog. One dribble from half court, two steps. How much of a running start do you have? No running start. You start at half court. You take one dribble, two steps. I was doing one dribble, two steps between the legs. One dribble, two steps. Windmill from half court. From half court. I mean, I've seen Giannis run up with two dribbles and he dunks. But he's got a running start. No, we start at half court. Boom. Ones I was doing in high school. Damn. Dwight, you won how many NBA dunk contests? Two. One, just one. So, if you could put in order your top three, top five best NBA dunkers of all time. Where do you rank on that list? And who's your top five? Top 10. Okay. I put myself three. Uh, before at number one is Vince Carter ahead of Mike. Ahead of Mike. Yes. Have you seen Vince Carter? Olympics. Oh my god. He got to be number one. Now then you got to you got to go with Mike. Then you got Dominique Wilkins. Four. And nobody's putting him in here, but I got to put him in here. Who's five? Daryl Dawkins. Oh, you going old school. Daryl Dawkins. Okay. Sexual chocolate or something like that. Oh, that was mine. Rick James. What was his nickname? Chocolate sexual time. That's what coming to America. Of course, Daryl Dawkins. Yes. Dr. Dunkinstein. I used to Randy Watson. Got to get Randy Watson. Does Where does LeBron rank on this list? He never won an NBA dunk contest. He never competed. He didn't do one. Why didn't he do one? I think LeBron's LeBron is a dunk contest. No, he's agame dunker. I don't think he's a dunk contest dunker. I think it's two different things. Ingame dunker, you have the crowd, you have everyone, you have the whole game going on. So you have the atmosphere and everything to lift you up. And a dunk contest is just you. You got to find a way to entertain the crowd. You got to find a way to muster up enough energy to get up and do crazy dunks. So I think that LeBron is a ingame dunker. Uh he did do a dunk contest in high school uh for the McDonald's game. Remember that? But I don't think it was exciting because he did basically the same dunk that he does now. the one hand like this, the reverse dunk like this. Um, those are his special ducks, you know. So, CBD. So, can I get my alltime top five? Number one, Mac Mlung. Okay. Number two, Brent Barry. Okay. Number three, I'm just naming white guys here. No, I'm just kidding. But, um, where would you rank um, Blake Griffin on this list? because a lot of people think that he's on top of everybody. Maybe with the exception of Vince Carter. Blake. Blake top 10 all time. He's top 10. Like the Kendrick Perkins the um what's the one over New York? Timothy Mosov. Oh yeah. Dunked over seven footer. Right. This one. He's probably got the most like crazy facials cuz you know what you just reminded me of while you guys were talking about this? I I actually want to know what you're going to say about this. Is you know the Kobe dunk on you? Like do you know which one I'm talking about? Yeah. Yeah. So, have you seen this one? You even talk about it, right? Can you uh Yeah, Rob, this is like out of control. Doesn't make any sense. And I was a rookie. Was it your rookie year? Because most people don't talk about this dunk cuz it was so long ago. Watch this. Watch this. Oh. Oh, that's your rookie year. Yeah, the 04. See, I I thought he was gonna come. You could have met him up there. Got you, Dwight. Yeah, you wanted the the I don't know what I was doing because you know what? Um I don't know what I was doing. I remember Brian Grant said, "Welcome to the league, young fella." And I remember my homeboy, he made it was my birthday right after the Is that Is that Is that who I think I was? No, that's not Ray Franc. That's Steve Francis. like get out of the man. Good for Francis while he was like that. Yeah. So Francis was a tough teammate pushing. Yeah. He didn't like that. He ain't like nobody dunking and messing with DJ. But you know what that did? It woke me up cuz before that I couldn't hear real good. And after that I I heard everything and I was like, you know what? I'm never letting nobody do this to me again. I got three three defensive player of the year awards after that. Um you know I got in the wait room. How many games after your rookie? Like game one. What game is that when that happened? That was a while into the season. That was deep into the season. No, actually it had to be early into the season. Um before December, so yeah, that was early into the season. And and who's Kobe? Like have you faced him yet? Like was this the first time when this happens where it's kind of like holy [ __ ] I think it was cuz um he said uh our coach said don't let Kobe split the um pick and roll. And so he split the pick and roll. And he said, "Dwight, if he does, just come over high hands. I'm come over high hands." They say, you know, "Boom." Oh. That's all I heard was boom. Was the ball going through the rim. Boom. And the whole crowd said, "Oh." I'm like, "He got me good." Does it make sense? Like when you see that up close and personal, does it make sense he's a 38 inch vertical? Is that about right? Um I see it's all about angles and timing and his angle was so fast to the basket and deliberate that my force wasn't enough to stop his force. If I would have came with the exact or even more force, we would have met and it probably would have never happened. But so I came over there like la, you know. Yeah. So um but that would never happen to you once you went into your defensive player mode. No, I would have ran. I would have jumped to meet him early either to put him on the ground and say, "Hey, you're not doing this. This is the only time you're gonna get or I'm gonna go up and I'm going to grab the ball and block it." Olympics. When he went to the Olympics, you guys were on that crazy team, right? And it it was actually very uh they did a documentary on that that uh Yes. I don't remember what it was called. The redeemed team. The red is that what it was called? I actually liked it. I have you seen it or no? The the documentary on Yes. Yeah. It's actually a a good documentary when they're explaining different things, but you're there. This is the story when they say LeBron learned his work ethic from the Olympics from Kobe, right? That's what you hear about with a lot of people when they're watching and seeing how he prepared, how Kobe prepared the mornings, the afternoons, and you know, Bosch tells a story of what it was like at the Olympics. I'm going to the gym and watch come train with me and he's training with this guy and he's training with that guy. And it's a very different version of the story of the 92 dream team where you know uh uh Jordan and Chuck Daly are golfing every day. You know they're going on there's playing cards late night and like does Mike ever sleep? Like what is wrong with this guy? This guy's got to be a vampire, right? What was the Olympic like? Cuz when you're talking to ladies Dwight, you know, you're tall, you're tough to avoid and you're a good-looking guy, you got a good smile. So I can only imagine what happened. So, walk me through who was fun, who was playing cards. You know, we've seen the the video of you Chris Paul having the sandwich somewhere in China and LeBron's talking, but some I don't know where was it was at, but what was the vibe like? What was Kobe like? What was LeBron like? And who was fun? See, I was I was the youngest on the team. So, for me, I was wideeyed and I'm just watching everything, goofy, laughing. Um, and everybody did their own thing. You know, Kobe, you know, obviously had his family and his wife there. So, um, didn't see too much of him, you know, outside of being with his family. And then since we were in China, it's like he was not going to be able to go nowhere. The fans were like, we couldn't even stay on the Olympic Village. We had to stay at another hotel that was way off from everybody else. And it was ridiculous. So, um, you talk about Kobe star power, like when you walked out, people would stop. Like, I remember the cheering. It was It was ridiculous. Other Olympians wanted to take pictures and autographs and it was crazy. It was It was insane. Uh, yeah, it was pretty insane. But, um, oh man, the vibe was immaculate. just being able to go out and sometimes we would go to the village and, you know, we would just kick it with, you know, all the, you know, competitors and stuff like that. Um, but I was so young, man. I I really didn't know what I was doing. I was I was 22. So, at 22, man, I'm just just out there like, man, I'm playing on Olympic team. I'm playing with Kobe, LeBron, Jason Kid, Michael Red, Chris Paul, all these guys. Carmelo. Carmelo Wade. Like what a team. I'm just like, man, I'm the youngest guy. So everything was a blur to me. It was happening so fast. I'm seeing prime Kobe. I'm seeing Baldhead Dwayne Wade. Like that's when he was going crazy when he cut the hair off. It was all these different things. I'm I'm watching like, wow, I'm in the middle of greatness and I don't even know what's going on. So then to win the Olympics uh with everyone, to be in Beijing, to do all that, the vibes was was the partying as crazy as people were saying because because this the you read the articles, it's like the athletes from around the world. They were hooking up so much that it was out of control. Is that what the partying was or was it that wasn't you? My name Bennett. No, but it was Was it hardcore partying or uh I don't want to say it was hardcore partying? I didn't I I wasn't a party person back then. Um so you matured later on the partying side. I would say when when I played with the Lakers with LeBron, we did have you know some parties and you know when we would go to certain cities and stuff like that, but that's probably about it. Got it. So, China was just chilling. Yeah, cuz we was on a mission, you know, so it was not a lot of stuff we could do. And then everybody wanted to meet us, take pictures and stuff like that. So, you know, there's nowhere for us to hide or do anything like that. You're saying uh when you were in LA with LeBron, you were partying a little bit with that best cities to party and then you've gone around because I listen, I'm from Miami. I see every city. Every city. No, but San Antonio ain't Miami though. San Antonio is not Miami, but San Antonio is San Antonio. So if if you could give your top five, you know, we did with Dunks. Top five cities to go out and party in. You can go out and have a great time in Utah. Utah. Dry County. Okay. If you want to call it dry, you can call it dry. Or you can get some of them them lemon peppered gold wet wings. They can be No, I'm just kidding. But send it to us. So Salt Lake City is in your top five party. That's what I'm saying. Salt Lake City don't sleep Jazz. Don't sleep on Milwaukee. Milwaukee. Yeah. Don't sleep on these. Maybe that's why I don't keep Giannis there. Huh. I don't think No. All right. I would say three more cities. No, I would go LA, Miami, Atlanta, Chicago, New York. Chicago, New York. Yeah. Uh, Dwight, when you're when you're, you know, you're playing ball, you know, like I remember when we worked at Bal's, my manager would say, "Listen, anybody you want to meet, you're going to meet here. The nightclub people, the sports people, you're going to meet everybody." And so we'd go to nightclubs, you had all these connections just because for whatever reason, the gym had a certain connection with people that would come. Was very weird. Why? I don't know why. NBA, you're in. You're going like this courtside. You're seeing people that are there and like, "Oh [ __ ] this person's here to watch me play." Who was it like the first time we're like, "They're here to watch us play. Damn, that's crazy. I can't believe they're Who was that?" Oh, man. First one. Well, you kind of were like Starruck. Well, see, Beyonce. Beyonce. Yeah. I used to be in love with Beyonce. Really? Yeah. I loved her so much. So when I saw her, I was like, but it wasn't at a basketball game. It was at a restaurant. And she was like, "Oh, me and Jay are big fans." And it was crazy cuz I was like, "Man, I wish I could meet Beyonce." They come to the games, but I don't want to interrupt them at games and stuff like that. Uh, but Beyonce, that was the one. Um, but a lot of actors, Denzel used to come to a lot of games. Um Jack um Jack Nicholson Nicholson um I used to just be like man they go Batman you know Batman's here. Well I mean Joker Joker there's the Joker. Um who uh what was her name? Uh you seen Martin before? Yeah, of course. Jesus. Oh no. Uh Pam. I used to be in love. I used to be in love with BDB. And so I remember being in LA and she came to one of my games and I was like, "Oh man, really? I got to talk to her and I Pam from Martin. That's what I ended up calling her instead of her real name. What's up?" Well, everyone so bad. I was like, "Oh my god, you're Pam." That makes sense though because that's what you know the person by. You know, you're thinking uh uh partying LA. Trying to see. Did he had what? Did he had a house in LA in Miami? Miami, right? Was it both or is it just Miami? Did he like Puff? Puff did it. Yeah. Oh, I never went to his parties before, which is crazy. Really? Never in my life. So, he never invited you to any of his parties. No. Um, no. No, no, no. I've never been to one of his parties. Was it Was it like Cuz you know, LeBron says there ain't no party like a Dy party, you know, and you heard some a lot of people saying that. Were you ever invited or No, you just weren't invited ever by him. I didn't even know you was having crazy parties. I used to have parties, but it wasn't like no DY parties. Say that. Yeah. No baby. We just had water and uh pizza. Have you been following the Diddy stories at all? You been following them? Uh, no. I can't. Just stay out of it. Yeah, cuz you know, we don't really know what's true, what's not true. you know, anybody could get into court and allegedly say this happened or that happened. You know, a lot of times that's what the lawyers tell them to do. We're going to make you got to make it seem like this person did the the craziest thing to you so the judges and well, the judge and the the um the jury couldn't listen and stuff like that. So, it's like, man, you don't really know what's true and what's not true, you know? So again, he has a family, he has kids, grandkids, and you know, obviously Cass and everybody is involved, they have family and stuff like that. You know, I just hate that when people have public or when they have cases that it's so open to the public and people can, you know, see and stuff like that. I think some things should be kept private, you know, especially for the kids' sake and for all these generation kids sakes. They don't need to be knowing about um Johnson and Johnson, baby. little men being used in different ways than what you know I used it for when I was a kid. So So when when did you have guys that would tell you they're like, "Hey Dwight, don't go to this. Don't hang out with that guy. Don't party over here. Don't do this." Were there guys that would mentally prepare you for things or no? Um the vets or maybe coaches? Yeah, the vets. Uh the one thing that our coach said, I'll never forget this. He said, "Don't let Miami seduce you." And that was the one thing I will never forget. He said, "Which coach was it?" Johnny Davis. When I first got into the league, he said, "Don't let Miami seduce you." And Miami can seduce you. I don't know what you're talking about, Dwight. I do. I mean, if you go out Fort Lauderdale and all all over Boca Raton, it's just see we call them um See, we're always in a locker room with you know, we call them the what do you call the legs with the hairy legs. You know, we don't want to be around hairy legs when we're not playing. We want some soft legs. We'll be around some nice looking women. So, if you go to Miami, we'll seduce you cuz it's a lot of beautiful women in Miami or in the Florida area. So, you used to always tell us and tell me personally to you, Dwight, do not let Miami seduce you. What was that your So, I've seen I've been around the NBA players a little bit. Some guys are into, you know, smoking a little bit. That's their thing. Some guys like to drink. They could show up wasted next day, right? Some guys are into cars. Some guys are into, you know, jewelry and all that. Some guys are just straight up I like the women. What was your advice? How did you like navigate the NBA and where did you, you know, kind of fall into the spectrum? Cuz we all have it. I think um with money when you get a chance to have any type of money it it kind of bring out it can bring out you know some of the things your addictions and stuff like that. Um so when I was first in the league I didn't I didn't drink I didn't party. I didn't go out but I did like getting cars a little bit. you know, I did have some nice cars and um I dated a lot. I mean, giving Will Chamberlain a run for his money or you kind of doing your own thing? I don't want to say. Uh but when I was in Orlando, 21,000 winners. When I was Orlando, my nickname was uh Little Wil. Okay. But I didn't like that. I don't like that name. Dwight, you're how old though? I don't like it. So funny. It's competitive. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I mean, it's a it's a different reference he made. I don't know if you caught it. He did an interview one time. I don't know what it was with you and that one girl's like, you know, today uh uh it was it was all about the D and it was and she's not tracking and I don't know who's standing to your left. Who was that on your left that just ran off? Who was it? It was Dennis Shruder. Oh, we got so much trouble. We got in so much trouble. It was all about the D, you know. It's just And then it's it's the I felt so bad. I felt so bad because see this the thing I'm not thinking like stop Dwight. This is This is not buying this now. Now this this is crazy. Let let the audience see first and then you can you can you can narrate. Go ahead. Ro did a good job big shots and then on on the other end we got some stops. Our D was good tonight. Good. Before the game, Kent Basmore told me it's too far into the season to allow two losses back to back. If you agree with that, how important is that win? Oh, it's very important. But it starts with the D. If you know what you're doing, like you know exactly. Stop it. You're like on purpose. So start with the D. First of all, the question is so bad. Did you ever play defense on her? That's the question. I can't that that actually was one of my teammates, Sam Decker. That's his wife shooter. And you didn't know that? No, we that it was all we were we all know each other, you know, like so this is like I'm just joking about like she's gorgeous, you know, like us playing defense and using the D as a reference. Stop it. Which, you know, was very immature at the time. Um, and I wanted to laugh and, you know, I I I shouldn't have did it. You know, I feel bad for it because, you know, I was supposed to be a representation of the team, representation to the league as a older player, and you know, as a vet, I shouldn't have done that with Dennis. He's looking up to me and stuff like that. Um, but again, you know, I was I took it too far. I don't I don't Yeah, I took it too far. I think it was okay. But by the way, you're about to be 40 this year. My coach was My coach went crazy. Oh my god. Did it really? Who was the coach? Oh my god. Um, that was Mike Winston, wasn't it? No, it wasn't Mike Wilson. It was Why do I forget his name? He was just in um he was just in Phoenix. He was just in Phoenix. Oh, Mont uh uh uh Monte Mont. You know who I'm talking about. Who was Mike Bhoser? Oh, Bootenzo. Yeah. Yeah. Atlanta was great back then. I should have did what I did because um the team didn't like that. Uh and it was wrong. I felt so bad uh at the time. after I did it because I wanted some I was doing it for shits and giggles and stuff like that but not realizing like I can't be saying this on national TV. You cannot be saying that me I can't be saying like see the thing is a lot of times like so I know people say like this might be crazy but there's DH12 DH12 is the basketball player on Duncan then you got Dwight Howard that's at home that's the the jokester the prankster the you know family man you know all these different things that's Dwight Howard that's daily base so what what I did was mix Dwight Howard with the professional DH12 12. DH12 can't be doing that. DH12 dominate basketball. Go out there, be the professional. Dwight Howard is behind closed doors. Whatever your vices are, whatever you want, you got to keep those there, you know. So, a lot of times I think that's what has cost me in my career with, you know, certain things because I've kind of mixed, you know, you know, the person I am is Dwight Howard off the court with who I have to be on the court. It's so funny because when I watch you, you you remind me of an old friend who is playful and jokes around about stuff and and always wanted to leave a little bit of suspense and and you know, and you've done stuff where, you know, the market is like, is Dwight Howard straight? Does Dwight Howard, you know, when you do the gay stuff and it's like, yeah. Yeah. And then the market reacts and I'm like, so this guy's either straight, he's gay, he's bisexual, he's fooling everybody. So which one is it? So is are you playing You're not gay at all. Hell no, I'm not gay. So that that the that thing started with uh me being in Houston. I was with the Rockets and one of my teammates was Isaiah Cannon. And so there's this clip where it looks like I grab his joint on the bench, but it was his thigh, but the way I did it, it looked like I grabbed his thing and it was just his pants. And so we were um Rob wants to see how you grabbed it. So Rob is like really making this right there. Which one is it? This one right here. I had just got finished doing an interview and you know people were trying to make it seem like I was doing something um let me see it really strange. So I kind of grabbed this thigh and it it it don't it looks real nasty. It looks real nasty. But see people don't know I'm a jokester. I like to play around, you know, and do crazy stuff. And uh I remember one of my teammates, Trevor Arza, used to always say, "All right, now you play like you gay, people going to really think you gay, so you can't be doing that." And so I'm like, "Man, I ain't gay. I'm not This is just jokes." But we do live in a society where, you know, they see something or they might hear something or somebody say something crazy, then it could put you out there in a way that's not good, you know. So I had this situation then this situation with me talking about the D and all this crazy stuff. So now you got people assuming and saying things like that. So if you came out today and you said you're gay, you would be the number one profile on Grinder. I mean you would be hit up like people would be like Dwight Howard has officially made the announcement. No. Okay. So that's good that we cleared it up because you know that that when that rumor started circulating a lot of people were talking about it. Let me go to this next thing. You just had a scuffle with Lance Stevenson in the what is it big three or whatever happened. Yeah. So what's crazy is like we had a cube here I think a year ago Rob year and a half ago something like that and he was here because of what's going on with big three and and the the the only the last time I saw anything with big three when then all of a sudden I went and tracked who was the MVP of the big three and the coaches and then you saw uh Stephen Jackson in the locker room calling I remember that I don't know if you saw that clip or not. Rob, play this clip. What happened here with you and Stephen? Go ahead. Is this an act or is this real? No, it's no act. Um, but it's too much going on. Um, so the whole game it was a lot of Can you find another angle? Cuz I haven't seen this ang This is the angle. Watch this. Go for it. You see like he put his hand up in my face like he was going to punch me. And so, um, when that happened, I'm like, "Yo, bro, like you doing too much." And then he did it again like he was gonna, um, like he was gonna punch me. And so, I'm put my guard up cuz I'm like, if somebody put they like this is a far a far reach for somebody to connect with a punch. But when somebody's like I tell my kids, if somebody is in your space in your boundary and they put their hands up, you got to always be ready for You never know. Yeah. And so when he did that, I'm like, "Okay." And I'm like, "This is too much." But then once I got grabbed him and did all that, I said, "Oh, shoot. Now I'm already in it. It's a lot going on." But, you know, I don't want, that's why I was saying I don't want people to look at me and say, "Oh, babe, he's a hotthead and this is how he is." Um, I don't think anybody would ever call you a hotthead. Well, see, when I was in Orlando and leaving Orlando and going to these different teams, I was called a cancer. I was called this type of person in the locker room. And I hate that. You know, that's not who I am. That's different, though. I heard that. What I'm saying is I don't think anybody called you a hot. I think when you were, you know, the same thing when LeBron left to Cleveland to Miami, he got the treatment, you got the treatment when you left because the Rich Devos family, the Magic kind of looked at you as like their son and they really loved on you and they were protective of you and they really wanted to make the investment for that next layer to have. By the way, you were never Were you ever teammates with Tech or No, you guys No, he left and he said he didn't want to be no teammates with a high schooler. And I'm like he didn't say that, bro. You came out of high school. He didn't say that. He did. It's something some something similar to it like he don't, you know, he don't have time to play with a high school. And I kind of dude, the two of you guys, I kind of understand, but see me playing with him, I probably wouldn't have developed. Same thing with Kobe and Andrew Bino because you have a main score, somebody who's going to get a lot of buckets. So, he's not going to be trusting me in his prime years to win cuz I got to develop. So, he's like, "Why would I give him the ball?" like and I understand, you know, something similar to that. But, um, I was like, "Dang, I really I used to wear his shoes in high school, the T-Max from Adidas. They was the one of the coldest shoes ever." Um, so I was like, "Man, playing with T-Mac would have been would have been great." But think about it. McGrady at that time, the almost the pinnacle of his career. After that, he went to Houston and he then he do like the three points. Carter went to 13 points in like 30 seconds something crazy. When he played with Spurs, that's against the Spurs, I think. So, I think that for my development sake, I think that's why the Magic was like, we're going to move away from him and then bring in a Grant Hill, Steve Francis, Cino Moy, you know, all these guys. Tony Bati uh some veteran mindset, some people cuz we haven't seen this young kid before. He's coming from a 16 graduate school, 16 people graduate, you know, school where it's six guys, 10 girls. He's coming from a small area, you know, into this to this team. So, let's try to put him around some people that could kind of guide him in the right direction, you know. So, I understood what they were doing. Um but for me then I had a lot of you know people who was not used to money not used to um working with teams and stuff like that. I was very young you know so I'm trusting family trusting cousins and stuff and things like that and it didn't work out well but I learned so many life lessons um that helped me with my future. Yeah, Ma Magic was um you know, there's guys that are winners on teams. They're not fun to watch. There's teams that are winners and they're fun to watch. Like I couldn't watch Cleveland Cavs back in the days. Mark Price and Gerald Wilkins and whatever Craig Elon winning. I couldn't even watch the Spurs. I couldn't even watch the Spurs. Too much all fundamentals. Maybe Parker was a little exciting. Probably the most exciting player on the Spurs was, right? But there was no excitement there, right? But dude, you watched the Magic at any point like he's gone. It was You watched T-Mac, you watched Carter, Marberry was fun to watch. AI was fun to watch. It was real entertainment back then. It was entertainment. It was Yeah. Remember it was MBA actual NBA entertainment. I think now, see, that's what I was used to. the whole entertainment and that's a lot of times I got caught up in entertaining. So the whole D thing that I did all the other a lot of time I'm like okay I got to entertain and that that kind of can twist players minds and coaches or teammates and like maybe he's not as focused cuz he's trying to entertain but it's like hold up this is why 20,000 people are here. I done already put in the hard work in the gym in the weight room. I done did all the crazy stuff the mean stuff. Now with the 20,000 people out here, I got to they got they coming to see Superman one time. This is the only time they get to see me play. Dwight, who had a physique like you as tall as you? Shaq was big, but Shaq wasn't like a physique physique like most bodybuild. Oh, you know who else? Kevin Wilkins. Kevin. Remember him? That's what made me get strong. Kevin Wilkins. Kevin Willis. Yeah, I remember Kevin Willis. Kevin. One day I tried to box him out and he did a chicken wing on me. Yeah, he was strong as my arm. He had little short arms. Just look at his arms. He can't even touch his knees. No, he's also Did I say that out loud? I did not say that. Y'all are crazy people. Also, I think Giannis has kind of got a build like Giannis does. Alonzo morning a little bit. Alonzo had a great physique. By the way, speaking of these big guys, you're kind of like the end of what I would call like the great true centers. Yeah, when you came in the league, bro, I mean, between David Robinson, Akeem Elijahan, uh, Zo, Rick Smith, even Shaq, Legend. I mean, now you have Joic. Rick Smith's like Pacu. He was giving people, but now you got Joic a little bit. Got a shout out today. I mean, got Indiana Pacers in the finals now. Remember, you know, Jo2, Joel Embiid, we'll see what happens there. Who's your all time? Like who would you g mirror your game after? I don't know what happened with you and Shack. I'd love for you to elaborate on that, but just the guys you the guys that you would elaborate. I don't know why he was tripping. I would Shaq was tripping on you for a while. Crazy. It's so crazy looking back on it. Um I had to I would say the intensity like Zo I like to play hard. Um lift weights and go hard like Zo did go for I felt like his motor was different. Uh, so when we played against the Heat and they had him and Shaq, I would have rathered going against Shaq than Zo only because Zo was gonna give me a fight every play. You know what I'm saying? And Shaq Zo was a better defender. Zo was just out there on every play. You know, Shaq is just I'm I'm too big and too strong. I want to just get the ball in the paint. It's over with. Um but uh did Zo come in same year as Larry Johnson big was it grandma or did Zo come in with Shaq same year? I think it was Shaq because they was going for rookie. I think Shaq was one and then Zo was too. I think that was 1992 but they fought. That's what it is. LJ fought uh uh Lonzo Morning if you remember that one. My favorite player one of my favorite players Johnson cuz he grandma mom. What is he doing? Is he around? Like I haven't heard anything from. And it's so crazy because a lot of the players that were swole back then Yeah. Well, the last time I saw Larry Johnson, it was just like he was lean. Like real lean, dude. He cut up a human. He was Oh my god. Did he win a dunk contest or he went into a dunk contest? I used to love Charlotte. He had a great personality. Yes. But but back to the centers. I mean, even Patrick Euing, who was your you're saying you're saying that Zo was who you mirrored your game after the most? mirror my game after any center cuz I didn't want to play center. So I watched I wanted to be a point guard. So I watched Magic Johnson. I wanted to be a 69 610 point guard. So I played point guard all the way until my senior year in high school. And then when I first got to the league I was a four and then they changed me to the five because I was with Tony Bati and Kelvin Ko cuz I was faster than a lot of guys. So instead of having a a taller center, they put me at center cuz I could even though I was not as 72 or 73, I could jump and my arms was as long and I was a good defender. So they start interchanging me four and five. This is when four and fives was not shooting threes. Our first stretch big was dirt and the whiskey and then Kevin Garnett did a little bit and then he like Dirt did stretch threes. Cameron Darn Garnett did two pointers but at right on he would stand on the three-point line 20 footers like what are you doing KG just shoot three this this is a tweener you're messing us up you know but uh yeah so back to Shaq what cuz you both got drafted from Orlando both number one pick you both called Superman both physically dominant I don't know what it was do you think he had an issue with you and you didn't necessarily uh want to like fight back what was what was it there something there, was there not? I don't know what he really had an issue with. He had an issue though. Can we agree on that? I I I believe so because I didn't see a lot of other players that he talked about the way that he was just going on about me for the longest. Um, but again, the last time I saw him was in Orlando. Um, and I was just before that I said, "Man, if I see Shaq, no matter where we're at, I'm going to go and talk to him cuz this got to stop." Like first of all, he's damn near my dad age. Second of all, like I watched him play my whole life, so I have the utmost respect for him as a player and you know being the most dominant center to ever play. But like what what is our issue here? You know what I'm saying? Like what really is our issue? Like I don't know you from nowhere for us to have this type of issue. But I get it though. But I get it though because you know to me like when I followed that very closely as a fan like you know sometimes fans feel like they really know you and they want to tell you what to do. Well I'm talking from the fans perspective and Shaq came in. Shaq was another one of those in the you know category of human specimen most dominant guy that came in and just killed it. Right. But Kobe said something about Shaq. He said, "The thing that made Shaq unique was Shaq big, but was Shaq was vicious." His words and when I interviewed Kobe six, seven years ago, whatever the timeline was, the late Kobe, great conversation said Shaq was vicious. Now, here's the thing. He's raised by a military dad, extreme discipline. Shaq was raised by girls that were tough on him and, you know, he was challenged to be who he is. And then that's Shaq. That's his wiring. And then you come in, that's not your personality. your personality is not is not that just like LeBron's personality is not at all like Kobe or Michael, right? They're very different and you're just trying to enjoy playing the game and you know the vets would constantly like to compare you. He doesn't do this. If I was him, when I was 2814, 2815, I made the free throws when he counted. So, it was like the older brother picking on the younger brother and the younger brother's just trying to enjoy the game. That was the vibe that I felt from it. And then lineage. Orlando. Orlando. Okay. So, if he would have won at Orlando and Shaq didn't, you know, these were the moments that the market was like like right now. Hallebertton had a shot at winning for the Pacers. They're down 3-2. They should have won the two the two games ago when they were up 2-1 and they were up like 13 points in the third quarter and then all of a sudden I go to sleep with Dylan. I'm like, "Ah, it's over." Wake up. What? They won by seven. What did OKC do? to come back. The guy had however many points in the fourth quarter. They they seem like they're repeating again with what happened when uh Vogle took Hibbert out center the allstar that year it's averaging like 16 points a game. So to me it's that constant comparison. It's like dude I just want to play Superman Superman. That's how I saw it. I hate it because comparison to me comparison is the thief of joy. And anytime you try to compare someone's someone's game to another game, then now you're belittling both players because me and Shaq are two different pro prototypes. You know, he's 73 pounds. Yeah. 320. Built different. You know, I'm really 610 and my highest is 265, 270. Mhm. You're talking about a behemoth of a man with Shaq being 72, 73. My voice was never that deep. Let me stop. But no, I love Shaq. But you're saying the next time I see Shaq, I'm going to go talk to him. You never reached out and said, "Dude, why are you Yeah, we did, you know, but I was like, I'm tired of the going back and forth on the internet or text message and I want to see him in person." Like this back and forth got to stop, whatever it is. So, um, when I got inducted into the the Magic Hall of Fame, I saw him in, um, where was we at? Orlando at this restaurant. I was like, "Man, I'm going to go over there and talk to him." How long ago was this? This was a couple months ago. Oh, this is very recent. Recent. So, you went up and you said, "Hey, Shaq, what's going on?" Said, "What's up, dog? We got to sit down. Let's talk." And he said, "What?" He said, "Let's go." So, how'd that conversation go? So, we sat down 30 about 30 minutes. Um, clear some things up. uh apologize if he felt if I felt like I he if he said he apologized if if I felt like I did if he did anything that was hating or anything like that but that's not who he is. I love that. Um he wasn't trying to hate. He was trying to motivate me and I told him, you know, I felt like, you know, if you wanted to do that, I think the best way to do it was to come talk to me behind closed doors instead of saying things publicly. Now you giving other people an opportunity to chime in. And now you got people on the outside messing up a relationship that they don't know nothing about. And we could have been done got this squashed or whatever it may be a long time ago. But again, let's do it now. Let's get this out. But it took if this was a couple months ago, it took 20 years to have this conversation. I had to stop playing. It did. I couldn't do it anymore. You think people because you've sat down with Shaq. I know you guys have a relationship. Obviously, we're we're we're meeting. I totally get it. Yeah. No, no. I I totally get you have to realize like when when a players and I'm just going to tell you from my perspect when a player's in your city, you look at that as your son. I know this sounds weird as a fan, but that that's the like we looked at Kobe like hours. He's hours, right? That's how you look at a player and there's always the expectations always going to be high while they're playing. Once it's done, you know what everybody says? We're going to miss Dwight. That's how this works. Like, you know, the game is over with. Like, I miss Nick Van Axel. Really? I mean, when the Lakers had nobody number nine, I think I don't I think his number was number nine. Can you see what Nick Van Axel's number was? Nick. I so enjoyed watching him play. I so enjoyed watching him play. I Yeah. Nine. I enjoyed watching uh what was his name on the Lakers? Anthony Peeler. Anthony Peeler lefty. Dude, I just liked By the way, did you know Anthony Peeler got into a fight with Garnett and threw an elbow? Peeler was a tough guy. Peeler wasn't like was a tough guy. Yeah, Peeler was fun. I read his rookie card. He didn't do anything crazy, but I enjoyed watching Peeler playing and they step away like, "Oh man, we're going to So, to me, that's the dynamic with Dwight and Shaq is finally like, look, we're in the same place. Hey, you got your chip. You know, you're going you're going to be a first ballot hall of famer. There's no question about it. What is your timeline, by the way? Next year or the following year? No, I'm in. You're in already? Locked in. When did that happen? This summer. They announced it this summer. Um, and I'll be going in August. No, September the 4th. Freaking awesome. And by the way, first ballot. Yeah, first ballot for sure. I mean, it's the your your career was an insane career of what you did. So, it it was great seeing you and Shaq have that conversation. When I saw that two weeks ago, I'm like, "Oh, that's cool." And you saw it? No, I was watching it when I was watching it. I went It was televised. Oh, yeah. You can see the We had We had a We went on his I went on his podcast. Um but I I felt like if we do have a conversation, we should have like y'all. It should be y'all too. And we should all sit down with Shaq. Come on, big fella. With you and Shaq. Yeah. Let's go ahead and get I think the crowd wants that. Yeah. I think everybody would love that. I think Shaq would do that. I think that would be a that would be it it literally is like you know how the one nickname you didn't like the little wilt because I think you can give better names than little wilt but like big bro you know little brother type of thing that's going on here I especially especially the the way it got started both of you guys coming to the magic but I have to see now this is crazy to me now the superman nickname for me came because one day I jumped over my one of my teammates in practice and I used to go crazy in the weight room. That's how I got the nickname Superman. And I used to always listen to Soulja Boy and he had a song called Superman. So, so that was how Superman came. It had nothing to do with Shaq, anything like that. So, I was like, why would Shaq get upset about saying Superman? Now, when I did this, um, right before I did the dunk, my teammates in Orlando had asked me, um, to jump from the free throw line and see how crazy it'll look, cuz when you be jumping, it look like you flying. So, I did it in practice. Jir threw it over the goal. The same way it looked in in the dunk contest is how it looked in our practice. So, they was like, "Man, this is crazy. You got to do it." Then, Carlos Aoyo said, "Man, you should put on a Superman outfit." And I was like, why? It's like, cuz it'll look crazy if you do that. So, well, this is legendary. Like, this is this is going to be in the history books of the NBA 50 years from now. No, this is a onesie. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. This ain't this ain't going away, bro. Like I No, a onesie. Like the outfit. I had to cut the bottom and the legs and the boots off. So, this whole thing is custom. Yeah. I had to tie it under the bottom like That is so funny. Get out of it. Like a onesie. Yeah. That's why the underwear part is so high. That is so And it's so tight. Yeah. I just know cuz it's a onesie. It's a onesie. It's a whole outfit. I picked it up from Party City the night before. My Yeah. From Party City. It'll make it for a guy that's 611. And so now it's crazy that Shaq is he he says he wants to be called Thanos. Now I'm going tell you how this is crazy. My favorite movie is Iron Man. No. Avengers. And my favorite character is Thanos. Now, I've said this, I've been on public for saying this multiple times. I had a car that was all purple. I got it before I started with the Lakers. You can look it up. I did a video. I put the ring on the uh front of it and it started. So, that was it right there. My purple car. I got it because of Thanos. He's my favorite character. Why Why is he your favorite character? what he stood for in the movie, how he didn't allow his emotions to stop him from fulfilling his destiny. And a lot of times us in life, we allow our emotions and other things to stop us from really making it and being what we need to in life. And there was a scene in the movie, but it was really a really crazy scene to where um he had to sacrifice his daughter. Now, obviously, they took it too far in the movie, but it was to show like sometimes we have to be willing to sacrifice whatever it takes to make sure that we do what our life's mission is, our life purpose, bro. You know what I'm talking about, right? Of course. I know. On the cliff. And that's what made me like, man, were you in a villain season of your life? Like, were you in a I didn't even see him as a villain. You didn't think he was a villain? So, I I actually met Josh Brolan, the the character. Phenomenal actor. I met him on the plane going to see the uh premiere of Avengers. I was like, "Man, I gotta meet Thor and Thanos, my two favorite characters." He's on the plane, so I write him a letter and give it to him while I'm on the plane. I'm like, "Man, thank you for what you did in this movie because it inspired me to become a better man and a better person." Thanos. Wow. Because the first time he had an opportunity to do his mission in life, he allowed his emotions. He allowed everybody else to stop him. The second time he completed his his mission and he didn't allow nobody to get in the way. And what I realized is that all of us have to get to that place where we can't allow how other people feel, their thoughts, their emotions, or anything to deter us off our purpose. And there's times in the games and life where I've I've done that. Dude, this is I just went on the chat between I typed in was Thanos a villain in Avengers. Okay, you ready for this? It's like the you can type that up. Yes, Thanos was the main villain in Avengers, you know, in Avengers Infinity War 2018 and the Endgame, which endame and the way the movie ends is just ridiculous. Who is Thanos? A Titanian warlord from Marvel comic universe believes in restoring balance to the universe by wiping out half of life. So, is he a villain to prevent overpopulation and resource collapse? That's a villain, Doug. That's a villain to the what how we would say it's a villain, but obviously that person is needed to restore balance. Everything in life is all about balance. If we look if you have too much of one thing, it could cause problems. So everything in life has balance. The way they had to put it in the movie was to show that people had to leave. But, you know, let's just say like earlier we talked about vices or, you know, every NBA player has vices. I think a lot of the NBA players who've been at the top, what they've been able to do was let's say if somebody's vice is KD, he likes to smoke, right? Yeah. So, he's very open about it. Let's say his vice is smoking, but he's probably learned how to balance it out to where he's not overdoing it to himself. Um, he's not abusing it. He's using it for what it's for. Let's say he's using it for medical reasons, medicinal reasons. Um, he's learned how to balance it out. I think everything in life is about balance. The earth itself is alive. It's a living, breathing organism. So sometimes it has to balance itself out. And you know, which means that death is a part of life. Some of us, we all we all have our time on this earth. So that's a trip that you're saying, Thanos, man. But respect. I love Thanos. If I'm I'm listening to everything you're saying and it's like you have stoicism, Buddhism, Confucism, Toism all in this dude from Atlanta's body. Oh yeah. So have you read uh any Marcus Aurelia stoicism meditations? PVD made me read that book before I joined VTs. Have you read any stoicism? Are you familiar with this? I haven't read any. Um but uh I have done some research in a lot of different um spiritual beliefs. Uh from traveling I've learned so much from going to Asia to different Buddhist temples and stuff like that. Um heard a lot about taloism uh from being in Asia. Um actually my shoes that I had with Adidas uh they came up with the shoe because of my spiritual beliefs but also how I viewed uh let's say balance. So my shoes they would call them yin and yang. Uh the two sides of Dwight. You had this one side that's always you know happy smiling. Then you got the mean side on the court that would elbow you in the face throw you on the ground call you all types of names and then pick you up after the game and go eat. So it's like I had to balance out both sides and my faith has been a big part of my career. What would you say that uh your faith is? Are you saying you're Christian or you saying that you're a multi I am Christian um but we call it Kstian. Kstian. What's that? Explain that. Ka means spirit and raian. Kstian. Let's see if it shows up. K A K A K A and then R A S T I A N separate two words Kastian Kastian sounds almost Romanian PVD see if it comes up. Yeah, there it is. [Music] Close on the belief in single God called Ja. I studied some of this um my uh actual we are non- denominational. So, um there are I want to say it's over 2800 or 4,800 um religions or uh 4,200 religions or something like that. You can fact check that uh just to make sure. Boss Rob, he's talking to you. Yeah, I think it's 4,200 religions or something like that if I'm not mistaken. So you don't you are Christian or you consider yourself Cal Roastian? I am Christian but that is a deeper part of it. Interesting. Cuz Christians have um it's more than 4,200 religions and then it's 35,000 3,500 or something different Christian denominations if I'm not mistaken in the world. Um, so there's a lot going on as far as people's religions and u their beliefs. Yeah. See different Christian denominations. 4500 45,000. 45,000. Yeah. 45,000 I'm sorry. Um, your tattoos you what do you have right there? You have some religious meanings right there. All my tattoos uh are they have some type of meaning. Um, a lot of people were like, "Why did you get tattoos at a later age?" I got my tattoos around 32 or 33. Real late. Yeah. Um cuz I never wanted to put anything on my body. But then I started reading and traveling and start learning different things. I started with uh this right here, the um eye of or the uh hand of Fatima with the um with the evil eye, the eye of Ra. But this is actually my eye. And this is um when the sign is up like this, it's like pushing away any negativity, any evil. When it's down like this, the hands, it's like you're calling in positivity and stuff like that. Um then I love e Egyptology. Um the sun Amun Rah. I don't know if you heard of Amun Rah. Mhm. Um and then uh was this Anubis? You heard of Anubis? Anubis is the god that kind of takes you into the um underworld. So when we when we transition um Anubis was said to be the person who would take us to the afterlife. A lot of this is in old Pharaoh Ramsy's Egyptian days. Mhm. Yeah. I'm familiar. Some some stuff is in the Bible, but they kind of put it in a way where uh you have to really go deeper. So, a lot of times people just read the Bible and just read it. Just say, "I read it." You know, instead of really diving deeper into what it's talking about, the words and stuff like that. That's cool. A a deeper place for you. What's next for you now? Now that you know you're at a different phase of your life, what's what's Dwight going to do? And you know, you got money, you have a notoriety, people know your name, you're about to be Hall of Fame inductee to in August, you know, this year. You're going through all this. What's next for Dwight Howard? Man, it's been so much. My life has been so like a whirlwind. You know, there's been times I'm like, man, I just want to travel and just get away from everything. Um, but then now I have, you know, my kids and before they turn 18 and, you know, get into the real world. Um, what I just want to do now is really just put my energy and my effort into uh, more so guiding them and kind of teaching them for the world that that's ahead. You know, I came into the NBA very green. You know, at 18, you know, I just nothing. I didn't know anything about finances. I didn't know anything about love, trust, money. None of these things were in the forefront of my head. The only thing I knew was go put the ball in the basket, make everybody smile, have a good time. But doing that for 20 years, it's like, hold up, you know, I love other things, too. I have a farm, I like animals, I want to do this, that, and the third, but um now that basketball is coming to a close, it's like, man, I still have a long life ahead of me. you know, who is this person outside of the game that I played since I was three? I want to find all of that person. So, I've done things my in this in my basketball career during my off time to kind of figure out who I am. I did a show called Special Forces um with the military. I also did this thing where I had to sit in the dark for three days, sit in a cave. I did this is one of the craziest out. Yeah. I sat in the dark for three days. No light in a cave. Um kind of like spiritual awakening, but it was it was pretty intense. What made you want to join the big three? I feel like you're the most decorated best player to ever join the big three. A lot of these guys are kind of like decent players, but not perennial allstars, MVP candidates, defensive player of the year. What made you want to join the big three? Uh I think that uh five on five I kind of graduated from the five on five basketball school and uh want to take on a new challenge and um I'm still in shape. I love playing the game of basketball. I want to compete. You know, I have a good time and a lot of fans who may get a chance to see me in my younger years get a chance to see me play a little bit now before I'm actually done done. Um, but also done. Like if somebody offers a contract NBA, would you go back? You're done. Done. There's no need to. Okay. So, you're done. Done. Got it. Um, I feel like it'll be too much of a waste of time because I don't think people really understand how we used to grind with this NBA as far as practice. Like I'm doing three a days even, you know, like there's times now where I do three a days and I'm only playing once a week half court. So I just saw this. Was Drexler really is he really the commissioner of three? Yes. I I just I just talked to him um after the incident that you guys saw. He called me. He wasn't upset at all. We actually had a great conversation and I really appreciate him because I grew up watching, you know, a little bit of his latter years when he was um playing with Portland. I used to play with him on the video game. My dad used to talk about Clyde the Glide cuz my dad got a ball head too. So anybody with a ball head, my dad is he's like he magic Jordan Clyde guy named Dion Glover. Anybody with a ball head of course he trains he trains me. He's the guy who trained me in high school. I would wake up at 4:00 every morning, go to the track, then go to the school. Dion would train me every morning. Coming from the strip club to my school. I went to a Christian school. So they would be leaving the strip club smelling like booty and Hennessy. Coming up into this Christian school, working me out every morning. Wow. A Christian strip club. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Not a Christian strip club. That is wild. They start off with a prayer. They start off on their knees praying and then they end up on their knees. But though he would go to the Magic City, which is one of the most popular strip clubs in Atlanta, him and Big Ant would leave the strip club cuz I would get up at 4:00 every morning religiously and train. Go to the track. Um this before I got to the NBA. So the high school I was doing this every day. getting up at 4 in the morning, go to the track, I would run, then I would go to the school and lift and work out with Dion Glover every day until I got drafted. That was my whole I wanted to make sure I was prepared uh for the NBA, my man. So today, you know Scott Storch? Yes. What do you What do you think about when you think about Scott Storch? Scott Storch, that's the guy who was doing Yeah. Dre, the Beats, all that. Cuz Atlanta is a music uh Oh, he's a December baby. He's a Sagge like me. When is your baby? When are I'm born? December the 8th. Actually, my sign is a fucus. People don't talk about this sign a lot. It's called Oucus. It's the 13th zodiac. It's called Ofucus. So, we actually had 13 zodiacs. Um, and it came from the dendera. So the before it was called the zodiacs before it's called the zodiac it was called the dendera the African denderea. We took it we took one of the months off which was the 13th and we made it 12. Damn. And um yeah ofus is the one they call the the um the med the not the one who knowledge who bring the snake bearer. So if you look at the sign of the ofucus, they bring wisdom or information. And that's my sign. PB, I bet you didn't see this coming. Of fucus, zodiac. Listen, Egyptian, you see, if you look on the kaducus up there to the left, the kaducus, it has the snakes that rise up, you know, when you go to the medicine, you know, you go to the medicine. Yeah. The medicine symbol is what? The kaducus. So the the the officus is the the serpent bear. They bring in knowledge. Anytime you see the snakes that that represents medicine and stuff like that. So So we just found out your zodiac sign is Oucus. Mhm. Your favorite character is Thanos. All time favorite. All time favorite. Who's a good guy? Allegedly. Michael Jordan's vertical leap is 42 in. Okay. Michael's vertical leap is 42 in. Lil. And we found that you don't believe we'll slap 20,000 women. It's not possible. There's no way. And we just we just learned a lot of stuff, man. But let me tell you, it's it's a it's a pleasure having you on, you know, talking to you. When I walked and I saw you, I'm like, dude, this guy's still in shape, you know? He's still like he looks like NBA ready. Like if they call right now, you could go and play with them. Yeah. Sometimes you see players that they're done, they just get out of shape immediately. I understand. It's like, shoot, now I can eat everything I want to eat. Let's go. But this was a blast having you on, brother. And maybe if we talk to Shaq and he agrees, maybe we'll do the podcast together. Let's do it again. He's down here as well. He'll come down. And what we may do is here on the court that we have right next door. Mhm. I don't know. We'll see if maybe, you know, maybe we can play some I know we have the box. I have You have the boxing stuff in there. So maybe we can put on the gloves. But the thing is, you want to put on the gloves with Shaq? I would, but I'm not letting him hit. You got to It's a lot of sticking and moving cuz remember Shaq Shaq when he fought Barkley he's a righty but he swang with the left. I'm like he wanted to really throw Barkley connected though. He missed. He tried to throw connected and then Barkley got up under it. If that would have connected. Yeah. If if would do a lot of damage if if connected. Yeah. Sh. He connected with Alvin Robertson though rookie season if you remember that. True. Who? Alvin Robertson. But he missed so many people. He missed what you call um Brad Miller. Really calling Brad Miller. Yeah, this is this is the left. Like you would have never thought. Look at this left. Oh, and I'll tell you this. If you would have caught him with that left, it would have been over. Yeah, it would have been bad. But good. Barkley's had plenty of fights in his career where I was just watching highlights the other day of Barkley. I'm like, this was a guy so much fun to watch. By the way, Barkley is not 6'5. Why do they keep saying that? Well, how tall do you think he is? 6'4. Barkley is 67. 68? Really? Is he really 64? 67? Yeah. All right. Well, both I and one thing I know for sure, since they've retired, Shaq and Barkley have not missed a meal. Barkley is so funny. No, no. Shaq is Shaq is in shape. Shaq looks good. And Barkley actually recently lost a lot of weight. He did. He lost a lot of weight and he looks good as well. That's good for him because Oh, I I do think oh. Oh, you were doing the O'Reilly thing. My name is Shaqu O'Neal. I need you guys to get some more on Moral Zimick before. I just saw that. But by the way, Charles has got to be the one of the top 10 best personalities on TV. Charles Barkley. Listen, let me tell y'all something. My name is Charles Barkley and I got one of the best personalities on Shaq look here Shaq. Now listen, I'm here with Pat Davis and I I was talking to him about you getting on the show. If I can get you on the show, we get with the White Howard and we'll get you some uh Dunkin Donuts and uh they just round like a rim. Yeah. I remember that one one where Shaq gets up and goes out. He said, "What are you doing? What are you doing, Shaq?" I I'll be back. what are you doing? And then he's got to go to the bathroom. His stomach, take some matches with you. These guys, Chuck is like so quick when he says stuff. Anyways, brother, this was great. Appreciate you for coming out. Looking forward to it. And uh if we get uh Shaq to want to come on. That'll be an interesting one to have here together. I'll be on there. Let's make sure the money is right. If the money is not right, me and Dwight will not go on the show. But hey, if the money is right, I'll be there. Make sure you have some nice fine women because me and Dwight, we got a lot of kids together. That's what they call us Supermen. I have kids. He got kids. So, if you bring some women in here, it might be some more. I'm just talking to myself. We we we will do that. We'll do the rest. Take care everybody. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. What's up, y'all? This your boy Dwight Howard aka the Hall of Fame Superman in the building. If y'all want to connect with me, ask me any question, just go to Man and I and I got all the answers for y'all. Yeah, I can tell you how many women Will Chamberlain and all that was just fake. But guess what? I got all the expertise. Basketball, chess, if you want to learn how to do Snapchat, if you want to learn to get that jump shot silky smooth like me, if you want the fresh fade with the nice hair, come check your boy out. We got expertise in a lot of areas. Remember, connect and connect. I'll see y'all there. Peace.