“I Could Beat Jordan” - Dwight Howard BREAKS SILENCE On Rumors, Diddy & LeBron, Locker Room Drama | PBD Podcast | Ep. 603
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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? So the elbow was intentional, it wasn't accidental. When I say Kobe's the asshole... 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 to NBA, would you go back? Charles, it's got to be one of the top ten best personalities. Shaq, look at your Shaq 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 daddy party. Dwight, stop it.

I think I've ever said this before.

All right, so for those of you that enjoy the sports interviews that we do, we've 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. First draft,

I think the youngest player ever to do 20-20, right, 20 points, 20 rebounds. Just found that record for the most dunks ever. Career in the NBA, no one's dunked the ball more than Dwight Howard. Made a ton of money. I think you lived in a small house, small 35,000-square-foot house. You know, 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 Piazza, Scaramucci, a bunch of different guys that were in it.

And then for whatever reason, wins the frickin' 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. How you doing? 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. Yeah. So let's start off with that. Let's start as a diehard Laker fan. Okay. Okay.

And, you know, Lakers, if you're a Laker fan, you're a Yankees fan, you're a 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 happy.

You're like, hey, 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 major way. You guys won 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. It's tough to find guys like you in the league. You just can't find them. 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 else. I can get me a small little crib in LA. - A small little crib. - I already have my crib. - 35,000 square foot crib. - I have that at home, so I was saying I don't need a big space. I just have something 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 never got the deal, you know, I think 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, Buss or any of these guys. The story is, you know, LeBron fired a lot of coaches. And LeBron will say, I've never done anything to get coaches fired. A lot of coaches get fired because of LeBron. Fine. You hear great players fired.

have that reputation and they go through it. I think Jordan even had it with Doug Collins back in the days, if you remember when he was like, just shut up and give him the money. What is he? Just give him the fucking ball, right? Remember when Doug Collins said that? Get out of his way, give him the ball. So what call did you, what play did you call? I just told everybody, you know, get the F out of the ball. ISO, get out of the way. Yeah.

So it's like, oh, it's kind of cool, but do you win a championship? 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 don't know if it could be management because I'm like, they're the ones who first brought me in.

But then I'm like, it can't be LeBron because this is something that he wants to win. So he's gonna get the best available pieces. So I'm like, these were the best available pieces.

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 Bradless, who didn't even play in the finals or in the championship run in the bubble, but he was so significant all year, Avery Bradley and his defense, that...

you know, bringing somebody like that back. He came from Celtics. Did he come from the Celtics? He came from the Celtics. He was a beast defender. It's tough to find guys like that. But why do, 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 can you say somebody is a cancer in the locker room? You're going to call Draymond a cancer if he's mad that they lose and he goes off with his teammates? Kerr would never call him that. You know what I'm saying? So, you know, sometimes passion might look like –

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 say hey y'all gotta step it up you know they might take that as this is his ego but not saying it like maybe this is only this is the only way he knows how to show his passion I'm going to use him as an example I can use myself as well you know there's been times where I've been labeled as a locker room cancer because I

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 sports world, when you do speak your mind, you go out of what, you know, the team may want or you can get penalized for it. You play with 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 played with both. Right? And Olympics. So you were in 08 Olympics. That's right. So the one where Kobe ran through Pau Gasol. Yes, I was there. Okay. So question becomes, you know, 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 meshing. 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? No doubt. I'm pretty sure he does. And I'm pretty sure he did. You know, we'll never know if it was something personal or it was just, you know, they're moving in a different direction. Yeah.

Don't think we'll ever really get a true and honest answer LeBron directly. Have you ever had a chance? I haven't asked that's a good with the ass 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 How many does he ever more he's got four right so he wins two more that's six Michael six Kobe five magic five that's like a good argument and

You know, it's a good argument to ask because that would have put him in a complete different situation. That is true. But then again, I think that 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 a, a brand push them to a whole nother level. So Larry Bird, or let's say, uh,

Clyde Drexler, even Scotty Pippen, these guys have the engine of Nike behind them. Or how Steph Curry has Under Armour and stuff like that. So when you don't have that boost behind you, sometimes 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 were you with? Who was your shoe? 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 shit. 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 ended 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. That's what I'm saying. They got an engine behind. So did you ever meet like have you ever seen a movie Air?

Is that how they explain the whole Nike situation? Nike Jordan situation? Just a little bit. I don't know. You didn't watch the whole thing? Nah. Dude, you would love it. It's a sick movie. It breaks down the dynamics so well. There's only three movies I watched three times in the first week. This is one of them. Wow.

Wow. Three times in the first week. You took our entire company. I took not only my insurance company, I took these guys, myself, three times in the first week. That's sick of a movie. But there's a scene where Matt Damon is playing Sonny. Sonny Vaccaro. Sonny Vaccaro. Yeah. And he's telling Michael Jordan's mother on what to ask from Converse, what to ask from Adidas. And then before you do anything, come with us, Nike. Yeah.

When you were going through your shoe deals, was there any stories that you met with Nike, you met with everybody else, or was it straight up you just went to Adidas, didn't meet with anybody else? My dad was talking to Nike with my agent. And at the time, Nike said I didn't have a personality, which was crazy. Nike didn't say that. That's why I ended 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 was when I, yeah, before I came to the league. 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 that I was with. It was called Peak. It was a Chinese shoe company, and 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 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 played in Taiwan. By the time I left Taiwan, we were talking about making my own basketball league. Now I have a league that plays in Taiwan, plays in Thailand, Macau, Hong Kong.

a couple of places in Philippines and they have a team in China as well. And so they traveled to these different parts. We called it the Asian tournament. And I was just so happy that I got a chance to play in Taiwan. 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? That was a big part of it. But I would just say like,

Playing in the NBA for a very long time, you know, you could get mentally... It could be mentally ill for you sometimes. You could kind of feel real, you know, depressed or sad about some things sometimes because...

In the NBA, it's a highly energetic sport. You spend a lot of energy, a lot of time. You're moving from city to city. Everything is a whirlwind. So a lot of times when players get out of that whirlwind or that fast-paced life and everything starts to slow down, a lot of things look and feel and seem different. A lot of guys go through problems and issues during those stages. And a lot of players in different sports as well

Three to five years after they're done, some of them, you know, I'm going bankrupt. They don't know what to do when they're finished playing. So for my time in Taiwan, it was like, it's like Red Bull. You know, they gave me so much energy. You know, I feel so much peace, you know, being in the city, you know, just, you know,

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 ended up getting my gold card over there for business. So my kids can come now. Wow. Mom and dad, family can come at any time and start business over there and do things like that. How often are you doing in Taiwan? Well, at that point I was going every summer. And when I was 18, all the way up until about, I would say 34, 35, I would go to

and do a tour every summer. That's wild. China was good for your mental health. No, Taiwan. Sorry, Taiwan. My apologies. Mental health, just for a second. Ricky Rubio, I believe, retired from the NBA due to focusing on his mental health. We've seen what's happened with Delonte West. 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?

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 can say whatever you want, talk about your mom. 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 there's so much that goes into the game, you know. And now, because the game is oversaturated with talent and

with money, politics and all that, you know, 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 because they play this game for one reason and they might get on the court or with a team and they might not get a chance to play. They might have to sit on the bench for a whole season.

Things like that can cause somebody to mentally check out and cause somebody to mentally not want to be available emotionally. You're, you know, all these things can happen. So I know for myself, I just had to try to find a way to mentally stay present because when you allow those moments to creep in, that's when you can get depressed and start thinking about

man, this is a crazy life. I don't know who I can trust. I don't know who I can talk to. I don't know if 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 played this game, when 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 kind of takes away from the joy. What was when you were coming up, like everybody, you would get certain criticism, right, as players. Everybody gets it, right? 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, right?

And he would talk about leadership. I was like, oh, he was just the driver. He was this. He was that. What is that one player who said my locker was literally right next to his locker room? Swoosh. Swoosh Parker. Swoosh Parker is like, he's like, look, I mean, for one year. He says, you don't realize. It's literally right next to him. The guy would never talk to me, never ask me about my family, nothing, one time. Can you pull up this clip? I understand that. I had a moment with Kobe where it was like we were –

in the locker room on a plane together during the Olympics. Not the Olympics, but during the season, actually, the year I was playing with the Lakers and Kobe, where we were on the plane together, me and his family. He didn't really speak. Our locker room was next to each other. Not the Olympics, but the All-Star game, when we played on the same team, he didn't speak. It's like he didn't want to be next to me at that time.

So it was a little weird, because I'm like, dang, 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. But then again, it could have been something like, hey, I'm trying to see where his head at. And I'll never know. I'm a young guy at the time. I'm thinking, why would my teammate not talk to me? What did I do that was so bad? Can we talk it out? You know what I'm saying? But

Some people use different strategies to win. - Maybe that was his. - And maybe that was his. - Yeah, this is the clip, Rob. If you can play this, this is Swish Parker. - I'm with Kobe Bryant. It was an overrated experience. I dealt with this man for two seasons and 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 12th man on the bench. I wasn't 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 a 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 him. You know, said, did you 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 under your belt before you come talk to me. It was dead serious. So now that's Swish Parker. You're Dwight Howard.

I don't want to say anything about him. He was fun to watch. Swoosh was nice. Swoosh was nice to watch play. He was tough. But your Dwight Howard, three-time defensive, you went to the finals with...

Who were your teammates? Who was your point guard? Your point guard was exciting. Yeah, he was fun to watch. What was his nickname? He had a mighty mouse. And you had Rashard Lewis who got a big contract. He was really nice. He was really nice. He was like Hito Turkle. But, I mean, you were kind of like the face of the league for a good three, four seasons. You were, you know, one of those guys that,

People looked at it 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 in like, dude, I've made money already, right? When you're Kobe's teammate, you've already made a couple hundred million dollars. You've already been to the championship. You've had that. How different was he with you versus how he was with him? I don't... See, I think...

That when I came in, you know, he wanted to do the bad cop, good cop, you know, routine. And the season kind of started off kind of bad. We didn't have the type of run that we thought we was going to be in the beginning and stuff like that. A lot of injuries. Nash was out for a few weeks. Yeah, everybody was injured. That was a pretty nasty season. It was. And, you know, so I think he went into, like,

I'm finna go out here and try to score and do what I gotta do because I'm not finna let my team, you know, this is my team down. And I understand that looking back on it. I think that we didn't give each other a chance. I think that I kind of, the time where 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'm wanted, you know? I remember that. Yeah.

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, because he's not helping me get better. 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 as a young player, you don't know how to approach certain things. 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 continue to get better. And the year we went to the finals before I played with the Lakers, I remember calling him and asking him what I need to work on to get better. And we had a good conversation. Yeah. And this is when you're 18, 19 years old. This was after we played them in the finals.

So I had a conversation with him. 2009, right? You beat LeBron. Yes. I asked him what I need to do. And he said work on free throw line jump shots in mid-range. So I started shooting and making 1,000 shots a day. That was my thing because he was like, hey, I make 1,000 shots every day. So I was like, okay, well, I'm going to add that into my workout. So I started doing it.

a thousand shots. Then the next year I was, uh, second MVP voter behind Derrick Rose. What year is this? This was 2010. So you were right behind Rose. Yeah. When Rose won it, I was, 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 one of our big man coaches back then. Chuck Person, Pacers Chuck Person. But he wasn't a big man. He was a small forward, though, he was awesome. He could really shoot the ball. Yeah, he was a three-point shooter. So that year, actually the second half of the season, I don't know if people remember, on the second half of the season, the average

Our record was a lot better in the second half of that season with the Lakers. Due to me working with Chuck almost every single day after I kind of recovered from that year I had torn my labrum in my shoulder. I don't even think people understand how I was playing almost the whole season with a torn labrum.

Most people have surgeries when they have a labrum tear. I continued to play. I think I missed like six games that season.

Every time I went up to go dunk the ball and somebody just slapped my arm like that, it felt like somebody shot me with a shotgun and my arm just dropped. Who knew that? The team. Did the league know that, that it was going on? The league knew it was torn. So this was public. This was announced. Yeah, 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 that?

the status of my injury. Like, I need to talk to the doctor so I can let them know I can't play. They're like, no, you got to tell him. 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 could see us drawing that he's like that's the elbow one that's the yeah and i feel like 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

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What's he saying here? He was saying you soft. And he said driving. I was like, you know me, man. I know you. And so look at the score. He's down 25. Look at the score. So I feel like when he was. Kobe's down 25? We're kicking their ass.

And this player right here is like, why is he doing this? And I'm like, all right, I'm an elbow. You get off me. So the elbow was intentional. It wasn't accidental. It was intentional because, first of all, we're winning by like 25. It's the fourth quarter. I'm getting a rebound. It's like, why are you pressuring me full court after a rebound? And so I got one elbow. Then he comes back. So I throw another one just to get him off. And then we get into it. 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 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 Jackson's the coach. Oh, no, I wish. He was supposed to come and coach that year. We can talk about that. He was supposed to come and coach. And 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 was about to have back surgery. He wasn't going to be able to travel.

And so he wanted to make sure that his doctor 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. Frank Vogel wasn't even. No, it wasn't Frank Vogel. It was Mike D'Antoni.

It was Mike D'Antonio. I literally was just talking to Phil the first time. I was talking to Phil, and he's 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. All we had to do was beat people up. We got the greatest closer. You got the two biggest big men in the paint, Pau Gasol and myself. Who's going to stop us?

But we tried to play a fast-paced game with older players. I'm the youngest one, and I just had back surgery, and I just had a torn labrum. So why not slow the game down and play the pace that we need? Steve Nash doesn't have to go crazy. He just had back surgery. Coaches, but this is the part of dynamics. My interest is on the inside. So how many coaches coach you? If you put the big coaches, you had D'Antoni. Who else coached you? Stan Van Gundy. Van Gundy. Orlando, yeah.

Why can't I forget all my coaches right now? Oh, what's the black guy? What's the black guy? It sounds like it really made an impact on you. It did. I can't think of his name. Mike Brown. I'm so sorry. I know your coaches. Don't worry about it. You got this. I have so many 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 D'Antoni. What was D'Antoni's style of dealing with Kobe? Like, would he challenge him or he left Kobe alone?

I would most likely leave him alone. He wouldn't leave him alone? He wouldn't bother him? He wouldn't say too much to him. 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.

because you can keep the one side clear of Kobe wanted to do his thing. And then that triangle that's going on on the other side of the court or whatever it may be, I felt like that would have been something. Half court offense for us, it 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 move offensively. A lot of times big men, they mature slower in the league because the game takes longer to slow down to them. And I was fortunate enough to play in different eras. So when I first came in, it was back to the basket big.

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 it was like threes and half court. But, you know, so back then a big needed time. Hakeem, Elijah won. 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 because now the game has slowed down so they can understand and see it more. So I just felt like with a coach like –

- D'Antoni, the pick and roll and stuff was great for my Orlando time, so I think that's why they got D'Antoni. 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 the locker room with Kobe versus LeBron? Is Kobe games over when he's going? Or is LeBron, hey, man, good job then? What's the difference? We winning, they both live. They both live in the locker room. Man, it's been so long with Kobe. That year was such an up and down year. We had our wins. We was happy. But when we lost, we was pretty pissed. LeBron, man, he is a character. He's so funny. So after the games...

You know, he's going – his locker room is crazy. His locker room looks like your – with his backdrop here. The whole thing. He got everything. He got all the – he got like two lockers. Shoes lined up, all the stuff. He got a special do-rags, everything. 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. I mean, it's LeBron. It's 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

Than LeBron. I even heard you say something to the effect of, Kobe's kind of an asshole. But LeBron kind of wants to be liked. When I say Kobe's the asshole, it's like, yeah, he, I've seen him like go off on autograph seekers, you know, for coming, going, yeah, going crazy. Cause it's late. He's like, you guys out here just late, you know, asking for autographs. So man, he, yeah, I guess 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. 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 because he's trying to get to his goal, whatever his goal is, and he's not going to let nobody stop him. Who was, between the two, somebody like a...

Favorite teammate. I'm not even going to. I'll ask you the other question next. But as a teammate, who did you prefer as a teammate? LeBron or Kobe? It's a tough one. That is a very tough one. I just feel like me and Kobe didn't give each other time to really mesh. And we was in a place where...

And emotionally and mentally, I was fed up with the things that had happened in Orlando that a lot of 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 off 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. But I came back in four months.

I was supposed to sit out a whole year for my back surgery. 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 labrum, continued to play. And 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. Yeah, I remember that. But that's when he was averaging 35 forward. 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 LeBron. I had my championship with him. We had our longest run together. So, I got to pick LeBron. Over Kobe. But if you're an owner and...

You're drafting somebody and you have your number one draft pick. Who are you picking between the two to win? To win? Knowing what I know now? Yeah. Oh, well, you got to go LeBron. So you're still picking LeBron over Kobe? I mean, knowing what we know. All right, so if you're talking about longevity, if you're talking about just overall, not skill like how people look at skill. I'm talking about everything that encompasses skill.

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, do all these different things. I felt like Kobe mastered basketball.

his skill on the court of basketball. He mastered bank shots. He mastered the pump fake, pump fake, turnaround shoot. He mastered 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 when 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, you can see, they don't have the proper resources or the proper team to do what he's done. His longevity just stands out to everybody. Okay, so here's one for you. So now that you got LeBron over Kobe, do you have LeBron over Mike?

No, you can't have him over Mike. 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 three positions, right? Why do I have LeBron? Why do I have Michael LeBron? I felt like he set the bar for everyone. So he was the pioneer of it.

So I got to have him. So your draft pick, you're picking Michael over LeBron? I'm picking Michael Jordan. Okay. I want to be like him. 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 years.

Longevity-wise. I don't know how many more players like that I can think about. It's a few. D. Wade. D. Wade, yeah. He ended up with Chicago. Chicago and Cleveland. 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 L.A.? He would have stayed in L.A. You think he wouldn't have gone to Cleveland to win one for them? Like you think he would have still stayed in L.A.? Well...

If he never started with Cleveland? He was number one draft pick. L.A. picks him up. They had a horrible year, couple trades. They get back in front, and then boom, LeBron going to L.A. I don't believe he would leave L.A. You don't think he leaves L.A.? It's an interesting question to think about. Not if you start with L.A. I mean, if he starts with L.A., and he's LeBron James, the number one pick, and he's coming in, as everyone knows who he is now, I don't see what would be the...

the benefit of going somewhere else because this is the biggest team in 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? Do you think he would have stayed 20 years with LA? I think that there's a major part of LeBron. And look, I'm a lifelong Miami Heat fan. Like, I know everything there is about the Miami Heat. That was my team.

when you guys beat them in the bubble. I mean, you remember, I was living in Dallas at the time, screaming and hollering, rooting for my guys out there. Jimmy was fighting. Jimmy Butler, Jimmy Buck. Gotta give him credit, though. That guy's a freaking fighter. But I think there's a part of, two parts. I think there's a part of LeBron that no matter what, he was gonna try to get back to Cleveland and win something. Like when he left, 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. He put together the super team, the Heatles, with Wade and Bosh. And then as soon as he won, I think he won two out of four championships, right back to Cleveland. I think he went one and two against Golden State. So I think he did that and he did that. But 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 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. 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's your point though? 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...

and kind of running around, whereas Kobe is romanticized for staying with the same team. You still haven't answered my question. I think LeBron would have. I'm wanting a five-minute breakdown. Tell me, is he going to stay? He would have not stayed. He would have gone to Cleveland at some point. I think so as well. So here's my question for you. You're also a Kobe guy, not a LeBron guy. But no, to me, I'm a guy. Okay, I'm looking at his draft year, right?

Okafor 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. Very clean. Golden State. I don't think I ever saw him miss the small shoot. The way he was. Devin Harris, Josh Childress, Lua Dank. He came to the Lakers. He had a $61 million contract the Lakers were stuck with. I'll never forget that. AI.

Rafael, Rujo. Robert Swift. Chris Humphries, your boy. You were at his wedding. And you're going down the list here, right? But imagine you get picked because you went to Orlando, right? Rich DeVos, that whole organization. But say you go to the Lakers.

What do you do? Do you stay? You don't know what happens. Would you be with them for a while, or would you still be like, nah, I kind of want to go see what Atlanta's like. I kind of want to go to see what this is like. If I'm drafted from the Lakers? Lakers, number one draft pick, you're there. I got to stay. You got to stay, so that's how you process it. Yeah, I got to stay. I'm with the most storied franchise. 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? 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. So you would have stayed in L.A.? Would I have stayed in L.A.?

I wanted to play with, not play, but be coached by Phil. I thought that would have been big for my development. Why though? Just purely for your development? Yes, because I grew up in an 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, pick, get seals and stuff like that.

In this offense with Phil, I would be forced to do more fundamentally sound things, catch it at the top of the key, get to the basket, make a move. It would have been interesting seeing how you would have done. He would have used it in triangle offense. To get me easier shots, to get Kobe easier shots, to save our legs and our bodies so when we play later on in the season, we'll still have the same bounce, the same energy. Do you think triangle offense was –

Would work with big centers? I guess he would because he had Shaq, 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 Tech's winner or how did he pick up triangle offense? We just got it because my goal was to go to the NBA. And I remember my 11th grade year, we watched Shaq destroy the Philadelphia 76ers. And Dikembe Mutombo, rest in peace,

But we watched I watched at this camp. I was in his leadership camp. Shaq Elbow, Matt Geiger and Dikembe Mutombo in the chest 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. That's not an easy offense for a coach to pick. How long did it take for you guys to get it done? It must have taken months. Yeah, it did. But once we got it, it was easy. Because nobody, there is no point guard. Like, you're always. Always in a changing. Yeah, it's always in a changing. That's right. 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 run the offense. Get out of Dwight's way. That's a very good point. By the way, what were your numbers in high school? 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 he was getting too disrespectful.

And I was upset about that because I wanted to have a 50 ball. 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 it? Every school. Every school. I was just telling my kids the other day, I had a tub about probably a tub this big, this wide. I'm sorry, this long. 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. Were you ever tempted at all?

Was there ever like a tempted athlete, any college meet with you and convince you to say, you know what, Dean's, I mean, 04, who's 04? That's UNC. Was anybody able to get you to at least think about it? UNC got me to come to an official visit to UNC. That was the only school I did an official visit with.

Because my goal was to go out to the NBA and be the first pick out of high school. That was one of the goals that I had written down 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 I did a visit at UNC. When I got there, I was like, this ain't really for me. I think if I go to college, I'm going to get in a lot of trouble. In what regard?

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 was like, that don't even make sense. What are you talking about? There was only a finite one of them 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? No, I probably would have still. You would have still come in. Okay. So you talk about Lakers. You say, if I go to the Lakers, I'm going to stay with them for 20 years.

Not 20 years, but I would be a lifer with them. So I remember when I'm at P.F. Chang's, me and this guy named Arash were debating between you and Bynum. I wrote about Bynum in my book, Your Next Five Moves. He's in a book. Anyways, and I said, and I'm like, he says, no, I'm picking Bynum. I said, why? Bynum's got more finesse, soft touches. I said, do it. I said, I get it. I just don't know if Bynum loves the game.

Because to me, I think Bynum 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 it was, Philadelphia? I think he did. But see, I think that was him. I don't know him personally, but I want to say that probably was him acting out a little bit. Yeah.

He played, he came from high school. He went and played one of the greatest players ever in basketball. Kobe, man. No, he's talking about Shaq when he went up against Shaq. No, 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 eating back down. Yeah, but

But, see, while playing with one of the greatest players ever, he's probably getting ridiculed and all these different things. So at a young age, he's like, man, I watched this guy growing up. I was a baby when Kobe was in the league, all these different things, and now he's playing with him. And now when his idol is probably yelling at him and going off on him, that probably put him in a place like, hey, I'm not –

I'm not worthy. I'm not feeling this. Like, I came here to get better, but how can I grow if I'm number two or number three behind Kobe? You got to think he's a young guy. He won his shine, too. So that's pretty tough. But, you know, you make a point because there are, like, for example, Nick Saban comes into the NFL, doesn't do well, goes back to college, kills. And then you have guys that go from college

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 Saban didn't have a problem with developing 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, party. 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 are 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, yeah, Kwame or even, you know, the Horace Grant and...

because I think Horse was an 87 draft, 88 draft, and it's back-to-back 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 think about that. The part I think about with you, and 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 he 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. 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 Kupchak, 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 men that we've had here. The great Will Chamberlain.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, 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 and 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 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 Kupchick did that? No, I loved it because I was like, man, this is why I play. Like, Wilt Chamberlain is 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, Wilt Chamberlain, Wilt Chamberlain. And I was like, man, who is Wilt Chamberlain?

And he said he scored 100 points. And so the robot was like ChatGPT back in the day. That's cool. That's how I fell in love with Witt Chamberlain being my favorite player because 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 Wilt Chamberlain. I used to call him the Big Dipper because he used to have 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 L.A. and played out there, I stayed in Prince's old house, 2131. Prince, Prince. Yes, Antello.

Drive yes, he has an album called it so 31 21 or someone that and tello should be Prince's old house or something Well, yes, that's Prince's old house. Yes. What a memory you remember his address. That's the house I stayed in so many times Did you go to Prince's house? Well, I lived there. Oh you lived that was you so you bought it from him I got that house. I lived there for the time I played for the Lakers and then I

- Right next to my house was- - Can you get the pictures out? I wanna see the pictures, it looks sick. - Wilt Chamberlain's house, so that's how- - Get out of here Dwight. - I was so happy. - 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 could see the stars at night, so that's how I was like- - And you never talked to him or met with him? - He was already gone by then, so I was like, man. - You came to the league in '04, he died in, I think, 1999. - And he was already gone. - But this robot of yours, this pre-chat GPT thing,

There's one story about Will that everybody knows about. The 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. 20,000. Listen, you'll lose count after a couple thousand. I'm not going to lie. I don't think it's possible. What do you think is accurate? I heard it's Shaq and why Will Chamberlain was saying he had sex with 20,000 women is 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 do it like this. Back then there was no teams were flying chartered planes. I mean, when they were flying, they were taking buses 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 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. He said he embellished it. But have you seen the interview where –

Rob, can you pull up some of the interview? It's not the 20,000 women. Of course, Shaq even says that's crazy to be able to do that. It's a crazy number. But type in Will Chamberlain max bench press.

Okay, max bench press. I mean, this guy. Strong as hell. Yeah, but just play that first clip. Just play that first clip. Watch this. With a Venmo debit card, you can Venmo more than just your friends. You can use your balance in so many ways. You can Venmo everything. Need gas? You can Venmo this. How about snacks? You can Venmo that. Your favorite band's merch? You can Venmo this. Or their next show? You can Venmo that. Visit venmo.me slash debit to learn more. You can Venmo this, or you can Venmo that. You can Venmo this, or you can Venmo that.

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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 pounds. 600 pounds? I mean, I'm a guy bench pressing around 600 pounds. So he says he bench pressed 600 pounds. He says his vertical leap claim was what? 48 inches. Okay. On some interviews, he said his vertical leap was 60 inches, right? He says he squatted 1,000 pounds.

That's the claim that he made. This is it. Watch this. He claimed he had a 48-inch vertical, which that's Michael Jordan status. He claimed he squatted. Just happened to Will Chamberlain squat. Will Chamberlain squat claims. He says he squatted. Do you see the stories there? He said he squats 1,000 pounds. You can ask it on chat, GBTC, what it says. That's 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, slight like exaggerating what he really did? I think he was embellishing a lot. I think he was exaggerating a lot of different things. I could see him squatting a lot of weight. I could see him running very fast. I don't know about 1,000 pounds. I could see him doing a bench press. I have talked to –

Arnold Schwarzenegger. And we was in Gold's Gym out in, what's that, Santa Monica? Venice Beach, yeah. Venice Beach, yeah. It's the one that opened in the back six. Peabody's on stomping. And I saw him and was like, everybody get down, do it now. I was just with Will Chamberlain. I saw him lift 2,000 pounds. But I saw... It's not a bad Arnold, but I saw, I did see...

Him there, he did talk about how strong Wilt Chamberlain was. He said the strongest person. You got Wilt. You got Arnold, who's always lifting weights, saying how strong he was. 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, and so it's so crazy. He said Wilt dunked the ball one time so hard that when he dunked the ball –

And the ball hit somebody's foot from the rim, and it broke the person's foot. I say get out of here. Y'all are just making stuff up. This is what Conan the Barbarian with Arnold. In the middle. Look at the giants. Even if the 20,000 is not true, a lot of people think that that's 90% overinflated, even if it's 2,000 women. What are your thoughts on that many? Oh.

That's a lot of energy. That's a lot of... You're bringing on a lot of energy to yourself. But again, back in the day... You can bottle up that energy and use it on the court. But back in the day, I mean...

It was probably a lot cleaner in life. Than today? Than today. They were doing a lot of parties. Like, what was the big party they used to have back then? Club 54? Studio 54. Studio 54. Oh, Coachella, yeah. He probably was at Studio 54 with Rick James, who was my favorite. So I could see him doing a lot of stuff. You were...

You were fairly one of the biggest guys yourself. Oh, is this it? This is it. 40-yard dash and 4.6. Vertical leap. This one says 5. You ran a 100-yard dash in 10.9 seconds. I mean, you see the stuff that you read about this. Specimen. What's the most you ever benched? What was your? Well, I did, was it 4.75? You benched 4.75. Dwight, that's sick with those arms, bro. Being long. To be that big, yeah. My mini reps I did was 3. I did 3.15, 24.

four times. Get out of here. Combine is 225 20 times is a big deal. I was trying to bench press every day. Wait, what did you see? You did 315 how many? 305 how many? 315 it was 24 times. Holy shit. And then what was your vertical leap? My vertical leap was 39. 39. Okay, Kobe's was 38. When? You hear that his vertical leap was 38. That's tough. You think he wasn't 38? No, I'm just saying anything in the

High 30s to 40s is really, really good. No matter how tall. Jordan had a 48. I want to see this. If Jordan really had a 48, that means he's touching the top of the backboard. I've touched the top of the backboard, and I've touched higher. I'm dunking 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 him, Eric Jordan. But I'm saying, there's no way he had a buff. 10 feet would be 120 feet. So even if you're up 48, if we do the math, he's 6'6". So if he's 6'6", let's just say 48, you got 120, he can be...

You know. He got to be touching the top of the backboard. So you're saying you don't think Micah had a 48? There's no way he had a 48. You think Spud Webb had a 48, 47? Spud Webb. Remember Spud Webb from the Atlanta Hawks?

I do remember Spudwell, but they're saying Michael Jordan has the highest vert ever. This got to be some Gatorade, like Nike type, we're going to pay to make this scene. Have you seen the people who jump in this league? Can you type in what was Spudwell's vertical leap?

Spud Webb vertical leap. He was 46 to 40. 46, yeah, there's Spud Webb. And Michael Jordan had a 48-inch vertical. I feel like those are wilt lies. That's a wilt lie. Call us a wilt lie. 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 inch. So you said Mike's a lie. Bo did it? Yeah, Bo had that ball head, man. He was fast. What do you mean? Oh, my God. This is crazy. So Dwight, so what do you think was Michael's vertical leap? If you're saying 48 is that impossible, what do you think it was? He's just saying that's so crazy. He's two inches off a 50 inch vert Michael Jordan. That's so insane.

I know he did have some crazy dunks, but 48 inches mean he's touching the top. Okay, so now we're going to a different place. So what's up, y'all? This your boy, Dwight Howard, a.k.a. the Hall of Fame Superman in the building. If y'all want to connect with me, ask me any questions, just go to Manectin. I got it.

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? Scottie Pippen did a better free throw line dunk than Michael Jordan. Look it up. It's John Spire dunking. Look it up. What are you saying, Dwight? Look at Michael Jordan's. Greatest poster of NBA of all time. Yes, but why Scottie Pippen? I bet he went further. I've seen it. Why Scottie Pippen? I've seen it. I bet his jump is further back. Yeah.

And he's fully extended. Well, Scottie's also got those minutes. You know, a lot of times they talk about how big Jordan's hands are. Scottie's hands. Scottie don't win without, I mean, Michael don't win without Scottie. Let's do it. You don't think? Did he win without him? Well, did Scottie ever win without Michael? But Michael was supposed to be the man.

This is the one you're talking about. So let's see this. Watch what he take off for. This is in a dunk contest? Yeah. But Scottie never won a dunk contest. Because he didn't have the whole Nike behind him. He didn't have the showmanship. You're going to say Nike. No, he didn't have Nike behind him like Jordan did. The crowd. What was Scottie's shoe? Was it Converse or was he Adidas? Watch how easy he did this. From the free throw line.

Look how easy he did that. But what's Jordan's dunk from the free throw line? Only because Jordan has a ball head and he has shorter shorts on. Dwight, how are you going to start hating on Michael Jordan on the podcast right now? I'm not hating. I love Michael Jordan. He got the short shorts. He got the gum chewing. He got the ears. He just looked like he was about to go flying. Jerome Kersey was fun to watch. Blazers.

Let's see this. Look at the walk. Smooth. Effortless. Boom. No, he brought it back. 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? Showmanship counts. He did the same. He brought it back. He was just darker than Pippen. Okay, so what do you think his vertical leap is? You put on a cape. You know about showmanship. Yes. Yes.

Okay, what was a show about that he did the exact same dunk that Scottie Pippen did? Dude, there's no way. Scottie basically acted like he was just walking through the park and jumped out. And he did the same thing. And then they just got better pictures. You know who else did that? So did Brent Berry. Do you remember when Brent Berry dunked? What's the difference between Brent Berry and Scottie Pippen? He's a white guy. The colorings.

Jordan is so... Bram Perry didn't even take off his sweats. That's what I'm saying. Nobody's expecting him to do this. And this is cold. Can you fast forward a little bit? All right, so 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 here. He got the windmill from out the paint. He doesn't even dribble, though.

No, there's no way. This is not even, it's not in the same. It was in the wrong city. Where was that at? San Antonio? You know, Charles Barkley loves San Antonio. I know. Going back to you. A long-term warning right here. Going back to you. So you think you beat Michael in a dunk contest? Okay, what did Michael do in a dunk contest? He did the free throw line dunk and the windmill from outside the paint. That's easy. He beat Dominique Wilkins.

Which he wasn't supposed 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 outside of Nike winning. They have to have a name. So who was Dominic Wilkins' shoe contract in that dunk contest? And who was Scottie's shoe contract? Let's see this here. It wasn't Nike. So he was Reebok. And then who was Scottie Pippen's shoe contract?

Who was it? Earlier in his year was Deal with Avia. I don't even know who that is. Then it was with Nike. So later on he went with Nike, what he did. So what do you think Mike's vertical leap is? It's not 48. 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? Did you ever watch Shannon Brown? Did you ever see some of these, Vince Carter or Tracy McGrady? Me and Vince did a dunk contest.

- Privately? - Yes. - Who won? - You're not gonna say it. - He not gonna say it. - But we both did this crazy dunk. 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. - Dwight, 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. One I was doing in high school.

Damn. Dwight, you won how many NBA dunk contests? Two? One. Just one? Mm-hmm. 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 ten? Okay, I put myself three. Before, at number one is Vince Carter. Ahead of Mike. Ahead of Mike, yes. Have you seen Vince Carter's dunks? I have. Olympics. Oh, my God. He got to be number one.

Now, then you got two. 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're going old school. Daryl Dawkins. Okay. What's his nickname? Sexual Chocolate or something like that? No, that was mine. Okay. Sexual Chocolate. That's Rick James.

No, Darryl Dawkins. What was his nickname? Chocolate Thunder. It was Chocolate Thunder, man. Come on. I got my chocolate. That's what's coming to America. Of course. I know. Darryl Dawkins. Yes, Dr. Duncan Stein. Randy Watson. Got to get Randy Watson. Does...

Where does LeBron rank on this list? He never won an NBA dunk contest. He didn't do one. Why didn't he do one? Why didn't he do one? I think LeBron is a dunk contest. No, he's an in-game dunker. I don't think he's a dunk contest dunker. I think it's two different things. In-game dunker, you have the crowd. You have the whole game going on, so you have the atmosphere and everything to lift you up.

And the 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 an in-game dunker. He did do a dunk contest in high school for the McDonald's game. I 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.

Those are his special ducks. CBD. So can I get my all-time top five? Number one, Mack McClellan. Okay. Number two, Brent Berry. Okay. Number three. I'm just naming white guys here. No, I'm just kidding. But where would you rank 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 tier all time. He's top tier. Like,

The Kendrick Perkins, what's the one over in New York? Timothy Mozgov. Oh, yeah. Dunked over a seven-footer, right? This one. He's probably got the most, like, crazy facials because. You know what you just reminded me of while you guys were talking about this? 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. Have you seen this one?

You even talk about it, right? Can you? Yeah. Rob, this is like out of control, doesn't make any sense. I was a rookie. Was it your rookie year? Because most people don't talk about this, Dunk. Because it was so long ago. Watch this. Watch this. Oh. That's your rookie year. Yeah. 2004. See, 2004.

I thought he was going to come over. You could have met him up there. I got you, Dwight. You wanted the charge? I don't know what I was doing because you know what?

I don't know what I was doing. I remember Brian Grant said, welcome to the league, young fella. And I remember my homeboy, it was my birthday right after that. Is that who I think who pushed him? No, that's not Ray Francis. That's Steve Francis. Get off the white. Good for Francis why he was like that. Yeah. So Francis was a tough teammate pushing? Yeah, he didn't like that. He didn't like nobody dunking and messing with DJ. Wow. But you know what that did?

It woke me up because before that I couldn't hear real good. And after that, I heard everything. And I was like, you know what? I'm never letting nobody do this to me again. I got three defensive player of the year awards after that.

I got in the weight 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, before December. So that was early into the season. 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 shit? I think it was because –

He said, our coach said, don't let Kobe split the pick and roll. And so he split the pick and roll. And he said, Dwight, if he does, just come over high hands. Come over high hands. They say, you know, boom, oh. That's all I heard was boom. It 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? See, it's all about angles and timing. 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. So I came over there like, la, la, la, la, la. You know? But that would never happen to you once you went into your defensive play. 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 going to get.

Or I'm going to go up and I'm going to grab the ball and block it. Olympics. When you went to the Olympics, you guys were on that crazy team, right? And it was actually very... They did a documentary on that. Yes. I don't remember what it was called. The Redeemed Team? Is that what it was called? I actually liked it. Have you seen it or no? The documentary on that? Yeah. It's actually...

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 everything.

You know, Bosh tells a story of what it was like at the Olympics. I'm going to the gym and I want you to 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, Jordan and Chuck Daly are golfing every day. You know, they're going out and they're 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? Because when you're talking ladies, Dwight, you know, you're tall, you're tough to avoid, and you're a good-looking guy. You've 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 video of you, Chris Paul, having the sandwich somewhere in China, and LeBron's talking. But I don't know where it was at. But what was the...

vibe like? What was Kobe like? What was LeBron like? And who was fun? See, I was the youngest on the team. So for me, I was wide-eyed and I'm just watching everything, goofy, laughing. And everybody did their own thing. Kobe obviously had his family and his wife there, so

Didn't see too much of him, you know outside of building his family and then since we were in China is like he was not gonna 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

You're talking about Kobe's star power, like when he walked out, people would stop. Like I remember the cheering. Oh, it was ridiculous. Other Olympians wanted to take pictures and autographs. It was crazy. It was insane. Yeah, it was pretty insane. But, oh, man, the vibe was immaculate. Just being able to go out, and sometimes we would go to the village, and we would just kick it with all the competitors and stuff like that.

I was so young, man. I really didn't know what I was doing. I was 22. So at 22, man, I'm just out there like, man, I'm playing on the Olympic team. I'm playing with Kobe, LeBron, Jason Kidd, Michael Redd, Chris Paul, all these guys. Carmelo Wade. Carmelo Wade. 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 ball head Dwyane Wade. That's when he was going crazy when he cut the hair off. It was all these different things. I'm watching like, wow, I'm in the middle of greatness and I don't even know what's going on. Then to win the Olympics with everyone, to be in Beijing, to do all that, the vibes was crazy. Was the partying as crazy as people were saying? Because you read the article, it's like,

The athletes from around the world, they were hooking up so much that it was out of control. I don't know. Was that what the partying was or was it – that wasn't you? My name, Bennett. My name, Bennett. No, but it was – Was it hardcore partying or – I don't want to say it was hardcore partying. I didn't – I wasn't a party person back then. So –

You matured later on the partying side. I would say when I played with the Lakers, with LeBron, we did have some parties and we would go to certain cities and stuff like that. But that's probably about it. Got it. So China was just chilling. Yeah, because we was on a mission. 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 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, 'cause listen, I'm from Miami, I see-- - Every city. - Every city. - No, San Antonio ain't Miami though.

San Antonio's not Miami, but San Antonio is San Antonio. So if you could give your top five, you know what 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. So Salt Lake City is in your top five party cities. Salt Lake City, don't sleep on Salt Lake City. Shout out to the Utah Jazz. Don't sleep on Milwaukee. Milwaukee? Yeah, don't sleep on these places. Maybe that's why they'll keep Giannis there, huh? I don't think so. All right. You got three more cities. No, I would go L.A., Miami, Atlanta, Chicago, New York.

Chicago, New York. Dwight, when you're playing ball, like I remember when we worked at Bally'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. 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. It 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 I'm like, oh shit, this person's here to watch me play. Who was it, like the first time we were like, they're here to watch us play? Damn, that's crazy. I can't believe they're here. Who was that? Oh man. First one, where you kind of were like starstruck. 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 because 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. But Beyonce, that was the one. But a lot of actors, Denzel used to come to a lot of games. Jack Nicholson used to just be like, man, they go Batman. You know, Batman's here. What?

I mean, Joker. There's the Joker. What was her name? You seen Martin before? Yeah, of course. Jesus. No, Pam. I used to be in love. BDB? I used to be in love with BDB. I remember being in L.A., and she came to one of my games, and I was like, man, I got to talk to her. Pam from Martin. That's what I ended up calling her instead of her real name. What's up? Well, everyone knows her. Oh.

Oh, I felt so bad. I was like, oh, my God, you're paying for my money. That makes sense, though, because that's what you know the person by. You know, you're thinking partying, L.A. I'm trying to see. Did he have what? Did he have a house in L.A. and Miami, right? Was it both or was it just Miami? Did he? Like Puff? Puff did, yeah. 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. No. No.

I've never been to one of his parties. Was it like, because LeBron says there ain't no party like a Diddy party, and you heard 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 he was having crazy parties. I used to have parties, but it wasn't like no Diddy parties. No Baby Old Joe.

We just had water and pizza. You been following the Diddy stories at all? You been following them? Nah, I can't. You stay out of it? Yeah, because we don't really know what's true, what's not true. Anybody could get it.

get in the 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 craziest thing to you. So the judges and the, well, the judge and the, uh,

the jury couldn't listen and stuff like that. So it was 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 something 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 Johnson & Johnson, baby old man, used in different ways than what, you know, I used it for when I was a kid. So 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? The vets or maybe coaches? Yeah, the vets. 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. Who said, which coach was it? Johnny Davis. When I first got into the league, he said, don't let Miami seduce you. 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 over Boca Raton, it's just, see, we call them all.

We're always in a locker room with what you call the legs, the hairy legs. We don't want to be around hairy legs when we're not playing. We want some soft legs. We want to be around some nice-looking women. So if you go to Miami, we'll seduce you because there's a lot of beautiful women in Miami or in the Florida area. So you just always tell us and tell me personally. To you. Dwight, do not let Miami seduce you.

Was that your... So I've been around the NBA players a little bit. Some guys are into smoking a little bit. That's their thing. Some guys like to drink. They can show up wasted next day, right? Some guys are into cars. Some guys are into jewelry and all that. Some guys are just straight up, I like the women. What was your advice? How did you navigate the NBA? Where did you kind of fall into the spectrum? Because we all have it. I think what money...

get a chance to have any type of money, it kind of bring out, it can bring out, you know, some of the things, your addictions and stuff like that. So when I was first in the league, 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. 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. Ha, ha, ha, ha.

uh but when i was in orlando okay 1t 1000 winning when i was in orlando my nickname was a little okay but i didn't like that i don't like that now dwight you're how old

I don't like it. You're so funny. It's competitive. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. It's a different reference. 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. It's like, you know, today it was all about the D.

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 Schroeder. Oh, man. We got in so much trouble. We got in so much trouble. It was all about the D. And then it's the D is what? I felt so bad because, see, this is the thing. I'm not thinking like. Stop, Dwight. This is. Stop. I'm not buying this now.

Now, this is crazy. Let the audience see first, and then you can narrate. Go ahead, Rob. I feel bad.

You know what you're doing, Dwight. You know exactly what you're doing. You're like, I'm perfect.

Did you ever play defense on her? That's the question. I can't doubt that. Ashley was one of my teammates, Sam Decker. That's his wife. Oh, shoot. 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, you know, like us playing defense.

And using the D as a reference. Stop it. Which, you know, was very immature at the time. And I wanted to laugh. And, you know, 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 an 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. But again, I took it too far. I don't know. I took it too far. By the way, you're about to be 40 this year? My coach went crazy. Who was the coach? Oh, my God. That was Mike Woodson, wasn't it? No, it wasn't Mike Woodson. Why do I forget his name? He was just in Phoenix. Oh, a month ago.

uh uh monty monta you know what i'm talking about who was mike budenholzer oh yeah yeah lennon was great back then i should have did what i did because um the team didn't like that 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 that. See, the thing is, a lot of times, like, so I know people say, like, this might be crazy, but there's DH-12. DH-12 is the basketball player on Duncan. Then you got Dwight Howard. That's at home. That's 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 DH-12. DH-12 can't be doing that. DH-12 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. So a lot of times I think that's what –

has cost me in my career with certain things because I've kind of mixed the person I am as Dwight Howard off the court with who I have to be on the court. It's so funny because when I watch you, you remind me of an old friend who is playful and jokes around about stuff

and always wanted to leave a little bit of suspense. And you've done stuff where the market is like, is Dwight Howard straight? Does Dwight Howard, you know when you do the gay stuff? 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? I'm not gay at all. You're not gay at all? Hell no, I'm not gay.

So that thing started with 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 grabbed 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...

Rob really wants to see how you grabbed it. So Rob is like really making a service. Oh, Lord, this right there. Which one is it? This 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 really strange. So I kind of grabbed this thigh. And it looks real nasty.

Dribble it once and then dribble a second time before you got fouled. It was real nasty. See, people don't know I'm a jokester. I like to play around, you know, and do crazy stuff. And I remember one of my teammates, Trevor Reza, used to always say, all right, now you play like you gay, people are 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." These are just jokes. But we do live in a society where 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. So I had this situation, and the situation with me talking about the D, all this crazy stuff. So now you got people assuming and saying things like that.

If you came out today and you said you're gay, you would be the number one profile on Grindr. 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 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. Yeah.

So what's crazy is like we had a cube here, I think a year ago, Rob, a year and a half ago, something like that. And he was here because of what's going on with Big 3. And the last time I saw anything with Big 3, when then all of a sudden I went and tracked who was the MVP of the Big 3 and the coaches. And then you saw Steven Jackson in the locker room calling. I don't know if you saw that clip or not. Rob, play this clip. What happened here with you and Steven? Go ahead.

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Hey, it's Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. Now, I was looking for fun ways to tell you that Mint's offer of unlimited premium wireless for $15 a month is back. So I thought it would be fun if we made $15 bills. But it turns out...

That's very illegal. So there goes my big idea for the commercial. Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. Upfront payment of $45 for three-month plan equivalent to $15 per month required. New customer offer for first three months only. Speed slow after 35 gigabytes if network's busy. Taxes and fees extra. See mintmobile.com. Is this an act or is this real? No, it's no act. But it's too much going on. So the whole game...

It was a lot of... Can you find another angle? Because I haven't seen this angle. 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 when that happened, I'm like, yo, bro, like, you're doing too much. And then he did it again like he was going to punch me. And so I'm putting my guard up because I'm like, if somebody put their... Like, this is 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 it. You never know. And so when he did that, I'm like, okay. And I'm like, this is too much. But then once I grabbed him and did all that, I said, oh, shoot, now I'm already in it.

It's a lot going on, but I don't want, that's why I was saying, I don't want people to look at me and say, oh, baby, he's a hothead, and this is how he is. I don't think anybody would ever call you a hothead.

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. That's not who I am. But that's different, though. I heard that. What I'm saying is I don't think anybody called you a high head. 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 happen. By the way, you were never, were you ever teammates with T-Mac or no? 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. There's 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. 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 Bynum because you have a main scorer, 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 because I got to develop. So he's like, why would I give him the ball? And I understand something similar to that, but I was like, dang, I used to wear his shoes in high school, the T-Max from Adidas. They was one of the coldest shoes ever. So I was like, man, playing with T-Max would have been great, but –

Think about it. McGrady at that time, almost the pinnacle of his career. After that, he went to Houston, and then he did like the 13 points. 13 points in like 30 seconds, something crazy. He played with Yao. Spurs. That's against the Spurs, I think. So I think that for my development's sake, I think that's why the magic was like we want to move away from him and then bring in Grant Hill, Steve Francis, and then.

Patino, Mobley, all these guys, Tony Batiste.

some veteran mindset, some people, because we haven't seen this young kid before. He's coming from a 16-graduate school, 16-people graduate school, where it's six guys, ten girls. He's coming from a small area into this team. So let's try to put him around some people that could kind of guide him in the right direction. So I understood what they were doing.

But for me, then I had a lot of people who was not used to money, not used to working with teams and stuff like that. I was very young, 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 that helped me with my future. Yeah, magic was...

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 Elo, and they're winning. By the way, 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 this person was Ginobili. But there was no excitement there, right? But dude, you watch the magic. At any point, it's like, whoa.

- Oh, he's gone. - It was a lot of-- - You watched TMAC, you watched Carter. Marbury was fun to watch. AI was fun to watch. - I thought it was real entertainment back then. - It was entertainment, it was, yeah. - Remember it was NBAE? NBA, 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.

The whole D thing that I did, all the others. A lot of time I'm like, okay, I got to entertain. And that kind of can twist players' minds and coaches or teammates. Like maybe he's not as focused because 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, 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 looking like a bodybuilder. David Robinson. Oh, you know who else? Kevin Wilkins. Kevin Wilkins. Remember him? That's what made me get strong. Kevin Wilkins? Yeah.

Kevin Willis. One day I tried to box him out, and he did a chicken wing on me. Yeah, he was a strong-ass dude. He had little short arms. Look at his arms. He can't even touch his knees. Did I say that out loud? I did not say that. Y'all are crazy people. Also, I think Giannis has kind of got to build like you and me. Giannis does. Yeah, Giannis. Alonzo Mourning 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 the great true centers. When you came in the league, bro, I mean, between David Robinson, Akeem Olajuwon...

zo rick smith's even shack legend i mean now you have yokich a little bit smith's like paces he was so far he was huge he was giving people but now you got yokich a little bit got a shout out today i mean he's indiana pacers with the finals now i remember you know you're down three two joel and bead we'll see what happens there who's your all-time like who would you get mirror your game after i don't know what happened with you and shackle i'd love for you to elaborate on that

But just the guys that you would elaborate on. I don't know why he was tripping. Shaq was tripping on you for a little while. It's so crazy. Looking back on it, I would say the intensity like Zoe. I like to play hard, lift weights and go hard like Zoe did. I felt like his motor was different.

So when we played against the Heat and they had him and Shaq, I would have rather gone against Shaq than Zoe only because Zoe was going to give me a fight every play. You know what I'm saying? Zoe was a better defender. Zoe was just out there on every play. Shaq is just, I'm too big and too strong. I'm going to just kick him all in the face. It's over with. But...

Did Zou come in same year as Larry Johnson? Was it Grandma Mao? Or did Zou come in with Shaq same year? I think it was Shaq because they was going for rookie of the year. Yeah, I think Shaq was one and then Zou was two. I think that was 1992. Oh, but they fought. That's what it is. LJ fought. Yeah.

Louser Mourning, if you remember that one fight. He was my favorite player. One of my favorite players. Grandma Ma? Grandma Ma. 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. Yeah.

Well, the last time I saw Larry Johnson, it was just like he was lean, like real lean. Dude, he was like 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 back to the centers. I mean, even Patrick Ewing. Who?

You're saying that Zoe was who you mirrored your game after the most? No, I didn't mirror my game after any center because I didn't want to play center. What do you mean? What did you want to play? Point guard? I wanted to be a point guard, so I watched Magic Johnson. I wanted to be a 6'9", 6'10", 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. Who was the five? Tony Battea and Kelvin Cato.

Because I was faster than a lot of guys. So instead of having a taller center, they put me at center because I could, even though I was not as 7'2 or 7'3, I could jump and my arms was this long. And I was a good defender, so they started interchanging me 4 and 5. This is when 4 and 5s was not shooting 3s. Our first stretch big was dirt and a whiskey.

And then Kevin Garnett did a little bit. And then he, like Dirk did stretch threes. Kevin Garnett did two pointers. But right on, he would stand on the three-point line. Like, what are you doing, KG? This is a tweener. You're messing us up. So back to Shaq. Because you both got drafted from Orlando. You 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 want to fight back? What was it? There was 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 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. But again, the last time I saw him was in Orlando, Texas.

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. Because this has 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 most respect for him as a player. And, you know, being the most dominant center to ever play. But, like,

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. 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 to lead Kobe great conversation so 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 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 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 28-14, 28-15, 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 right now. Halliburton had a shot at winning for the Pacers. They're down 3-2. They should have won 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? You come back. The guy had however many points in the fourth quarter. They seem like they're repeating again what happened when Vogel took the

Hibbert out, he played at the center, the all-star that year. He's averaging like 16 points a game. So to me, it's that constant comparison. It's like, dude, I just want to play. And then Superman, Superman. That's how I saw it. I hate it because comparison to me, comparison is the thief of joy. And any time you try to compare someone's game to another game, and now you're belittling both players.

Because me and Shaq are two different prototypes. You know, he's 7'3", 360, 320. You know, I'm really 6'10". And my highest is 265, 270. You're talking about a behemoth of a man with Shaq being 7'2", 7'3". 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 up and talk to him. You never reached out and said, dude, why are you? Yeah, we did. But I was like, I'm tired of going back and forth on the internet or text message. And I want to see him in person. It's back and forth. We got to stop. Whatever it is. So when I got inducted into the Magic Hall of Fame, I saw him. 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 is 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? I 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? We sat down 30, about 30 minutes, cleared some things up.

He apologized if he felt, if I felt like I, he said he apologized if I felt like I did, if he did anything that was hating or anything like that. That's not who he is. I love that. He wasn't trying to hate, he was trying to motivate me. 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 and

Instead of saying things publicly, now you're 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 of the way. But it took, 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 anything. What do you think? Because you've sat down with Shaq. I know you guys have a relationship. Obviously, we're meeting Dwight. But I totally get it. No, no. You have to realize when a player's, and I'm just going to tell you from my perspective, when a player's in your city, you look at that as your son.

I know this sounds weird as a fan, but 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 expectation's 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 his number was number nine. Can you see what Nick Van Axel's number was? I so enjoyed watching him play.

I so enjoyed watching him play. Yeah, nine. I enjoyed watching, 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 a. Peeler 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'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. And I'll be going in August. No, September the 4th. Freaking awesome. Coming up. By the way, first ballot. First ballot. For sure. Your career was an insane journey.

of what you did. So it was great seeing you and Shaq have that conversation. When I saw that two weeks ago, I'm like, oh, that's cool. You saw it? No, I was watching it. When I was watching it, I went in. It was televised? Oh, yeah. You can see the exchange. I went on his podcast. But 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. Yeah.

With Shaq. Come on, big fella. With you and Shaq. Yeah, let's go in and get it out. I think the crowd wants that. I think everybody would love that. I think Shaq would do that. I think that would be a... It literally is. You know how that one nickname you don't like, the Little Wilt, because I think you can give better names than Little Wilt. But like big bro, little brother type of thing that's going on here. 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 that was how Superman came. It had nothing to do with.

Shag anything like that. So I was like, why would Shag get upset about saying Superman? Now when I did this, right before I did the dunk, my teammates in Orlando had asked me to jump from the free throw line and see how crazy it'll look. Because when you be jumping, it look like you flying. So I did it in practice.

Jameer threw it over the goal the same way it looked in the dunk contest as how it looked in our practice. So they was like, man, this is crazy. You got to do it. Then Carlos Arroyo said, man, you should put on a Superman outfit. And I was like, why? He's like, because it would look crazy if you do that.

Well, this is legendary. 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 going away, bro. 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. I had to tie it under the bottom. That is so funny. Get out of here. Like a onesie. Yeah, that's why the underwear part is so high. That is so funny. It's so tight, yeah. I just noticed. Because it's a onesie. It's a onesie. It's a whole outfit. I picked it up from Party City the night before. From Party City? Yeah, from Party City. It'll make you for a guy that's 6'11". And so now it's crazy that Shaq, he says he wants to be called Thanos. Now I'm going to tell you how this is crazy.

My favorite movie is 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 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 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 a really crazy scene to where 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's purpose. That's a tough scene, bro. You know what I'm talking about, right? Of course I know, the cliff and... Yeah, that's what made me...

Like, man, Thanos. Were you in a villain season of your life? I didn't even see him as a villain. You didn't think he was a villain? So I actually met Josh Brolin, the character. Phenomenal actor. I met him on the plane going to see the premiere of Avengers. I was like, man, I got to 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 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 done that. - I just went on the chat, GBT, and I typed in, "Was Thanos a villain in Avengers?" Okay, you ready for this? - Go ahead. - It's like, you can type that up and say, "Yes, Thanos was the main villain in Avengers, "in Avengers: Infinity War 2018 and the Endgame." Which Endgame 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 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 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, right?

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. 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. 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.

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, which means that death was a part of life. Some of us, we all have our time on this earth. That's a trip that you're saying Thanos, man. I love Thanos.

I'm listening to everything you're saying and it's like you have Stoicism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, all in this dude from Atlanta's body. Oh yeah. So have you read any Marcus Aurelius Stoicism meditations? I have. Maybe read that book before I joined VT's. Have you read any Stoicism? Are you familiar with this? I haven't read any, but I have done some research in a lot of different spiritual beliefs and

From traveling, I've learned so much from going to Asia, seeing the different Buddhist temples and stuff like that. I heard a lot about Taoism from being in Asia. Actually, my shoes that I had with Adidas, they came up with the shoe because of my spiritual beliefs, but also how I viewed, let's say, balance. So my shoes, they would call them yin and yang.

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 they had to balance out both sides and My faith has been a big part of my career. What would you say that? Your faith is are you saying Christian? Are you saying that you're a multi? I am Christian, but we call it Kyle Ross D

What's that? Explain that. Ka means spirit and Rastian. Karastian. 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. Karastian. Sounds almost Armenian, PBD. Let's see if it comes up. Yeah. There it is. Close to Rastafarian. I study some of this.

My actual, we are non-denominational. So there are, I want to say it's over 2,800, 4,800 religions or 4,200 religions or something like that. You can fact check that just to make sure, boss. Rob, he's talking to you. Yeah, I think it's 4,200 religions or something like that.

I'm not mistaken. So you are Christian or you consider yourself a Calvary? I am Christian, but that is a deeper part of it. Interesting. Because Christians have 4,200 religions, and then it's 3,500 or some different Christian denominations, if I'm not mistaken, in the world. So there's a lot going on as far as people's religions and their beliefs. Yeah, see? Yeah.

different Christian denominations, 4,500. - Wow, 45,000. - Yeah, 45,000, I'm sorry. - Your tattoos, what do you have right there? You have some religious meanings right there. - All my tattoos, they have some type of meaning. A lot of people are like, "Why did you get tattoos at a later age?" I got my tattoos around 32 or 33, real late.

I never wanted to put anything on my body, but then I started reading and traveling and started learning different things. I started with this right here, the hand of Fatima with the evil eye or the eye of Ra. This is actually my eye. When the sign is up like this, it's like pushing away any negativity, any evil. When it's down like this, it's like you're calling in positivity and stuff like that.

Then I love Egyptology. The Sun, Amun-Ra. I don't know if you heard of Amun-Ra. And then it was just Anubis. You heard of Anubis? Mm-hmm.

Anubis is the god that kind of takes you into the underworld. So when we transition, Anubis was said to be the person who would take us to the afterlife. A lot of this is in old pharaoh Ramsey's Egyptian days. Yeah, I'm familiar. Some stuff is in the Bible, but they kind of put it in a way where

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 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 Dwight going to do? You know, you got money.

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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. But then now I have my kids and before they turn 18 and, you know, get into the real world. What I just want to do now is really just put my energy and my effort into more so guiding them and kind of teaching them for the world that that's ahead. You know, I came into college

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. Only thing I knew was go put the ball in the basket, make everybody smile, have a good time. Doing that for 20 years, it's like, hold up, I love other things too. I have a farm. I like animals. I want to do this, that, and the third. But

Now that basketball is coming to a close, it's like, man, I still have a long life ahead of me. Who is this person outside of the game that I've played since I was three? I want to find all of that person. So I've done things in my basketball career during my off time to kind of figure out who I am. I did a show called Special Forces Sports.

with the military also did this thing where I had to sit in the dark for three days sit in the cave I did this is one of the greatest yeah I said in the dark for three days no light in the cave 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 All-Stars MVP candidates, Defensive Player of the Year. What made you want to join the Big Three? I think that five-on-five, I kind of graduated from the five-on-five basketball school. And I want to take on a new challenge. And I'm still in shape. I love playing the game of basketball.

I want to compete. 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. Are you done, done? Like if somebody offers a contract to NBA, would you go back? You're done, done. There's no need to. Okay, so you're done, done. Got it. I feel like it would 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 day, even, you know, like there's times now where I do three a days and I'm only playing once a week.

Half court. I just saw this. Was Drexler really... Is he really the commissioner of the three? Yes, yes. I just talked to him 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 a little bit of his latter years when he was...

Playing with Portland I used to play with him on a video game my dad used to talk about Clyde the glide cuz my dad got a bald head - so anybody with a bald head my dad is he's like he Magic Jordan guy named Dion Glover anybody with a ball He trains he trains me. He's the guy who trained me in high school I'll wake up at 4 o'clock every morning go to the track then go to the school and

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. A Christian strip club? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Not a Christian strip club. That is wild. They start off with a prayer.

They stand up on their knees praying and then they end up on their knees. That's crazy. But he would go to the Magic City, which was one of the most popular strip clubs in Atlanta. And him and Big Ant would leave the strip club because I would get up at 4 o'clock every morning religiously and train. Go to the track. This was before I got to the NBA. So in 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 Deion Glover every day until I got drafted. That was my whole – I wanted to make sure I was prepared for the NBA. My man. So today, you know Scott Storch? Yes. 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. Because Atlanta is a music –

He's a December baby. He's a Sag like me. When is your baby? I'm born December the 8th. Actually, my sign is the Ophiuchus. People don't talk about this sign a lot. It's called Ophiuchus. It's the 13th zodiac. It's called Ophiuchus. So we actually had 13 zodiacs and it came from the Dendera.

So before it was called the Zodiac, before it was called the Zodiac, it was called the Dendera, the African Dendera. We took it. We took one of the months off, which was the 13th, and we made it 12. Yeah, Ophiuchus is the one they call the one who bears knowledge, the snake bearer. So if you look at the sign of the Ophiuchus, they bring wisdom or information, and that's my sign.

pb i bet you didn't see this coming ophiuchus zodiac listen yeah you see if you look on the caduceus up there to the left rob look at the caduceus it has the snakes that rise up you know when you go to the medicine right there you know you go to the medicine yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah the medicine symbol is what of your caduceus so the the the ophiuchus is 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 Ophiuchus. Your favorite character is Thanos. All-time favorite character. All-time favorite character. Who's a good guy, allegedly. Michael Jordan's vertical leap is 42 inches. Okay, Michael's vertical leap is 42 inches. Lil' Wilt. And we found out you don't believe Wilt had the 20K. Slept with 20,000 women. That's not possible. There's no way. We just learned a lot of stuff, man. But let me tell you, it's...

It's a pleasure having you on, you know, talking to you. When I walked in, I saw him 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 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, I don't know, we'll see if maybe, you know. Maybe we can play some ones. Well, I know we have the box. You have the box and stuff in there. So maybe we can put on the gloves. Okay. The thing is. You're going to put on the gloves with Shaq? I would, but I'm not letting him hit.

You got to do this a lot of sticking and moving. 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. He missed. He tried to throw a quick one, and then Barkley got up under it. If that would have connected...

- Yeah, if would do a lot of damage if connected. - He connected with Alvin Robertson though, rookie season if you remember that. - That's true. - Who? - Alvin Robertson. - But he missed so many people. He missed what you call Brad Miller. - Are you really calling that? - Brad Miller, yeah. - This is doing with the left. You would have never thought, look at this. Boom, left.

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 Barkley's had plenty of fights in his career where I was just watching highlights the other day of Barkley. I'm like, this guy was 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? Barkley is 6'7". Really? Is he really 6'7"? 6'7", yeah.

He's a big boy. 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 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. And that's good for him because I do think. Oh, oh, oh, Zip.

- Oh, you were doing the O'Reilly thing? - Hi, my name is Shaquille O'Neal. I need you guys to get some more Ozempic for me. - I just thought that was-- - But by the way, Charles, it's gotta be 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 at here, Shaq, now. Listen, I'm here with Pat Davis. And I was talking to him about you getting on the show.

If I can get you on the show, we'll get with Dwight Howard. I'm going to get you some Dunkin' Donuts and eat this round like a rim. Yeah. I remember that one where Shaq gets up and goes out. He said, what are you doing? What are you doing, Shaq? I'll be back. What are you doing? And then he's got to go to the bathroom. His stomach is like, 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. Thank you for having me, man. Looking forward to it.

If we get Shaq to want to come on, that would be an interesting one to have here together. I'll be on there. Just 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 fun.

I'm just talking to myself. That'll be Adam's job. Adam, you 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 questions, just go to my neck and I got all the answers for y'all. Yeah, I can tell you how many women, Wilt Chamberlain, no, 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 my neck and connect i'll see y'all there peace