The BroadCast | A One-On-One With Dwight Howard

No he's watching. I'm Brian Seltzer and on this episode of the broadcast, Larne Rosen and I go one on one with the Champ Dwight Howard. What's up seventy Sixers pod peeps, Hope you are doing great, very exciting times in sixers land right now training camp is underway with practices taking place at the seventy Sixers Training Complex in Camden.

You know, it was a small touch, subtle yet not insignificant in the least when Dwight Howard signed into a zoom recently with me and Lauren Rosen for his name, he used the label Champ thirty nine. The latter part a nod to the number he war with Los Angeles Lakers last season, and the former part, of course, a reference to a much coveted designation he desperately pursued during the first fifteen seasons of what will, in all likelihood I think go down as a Hall of Fame career. Yes,

Dwight Howard, Happy December eight birthday. Dwight, by the way, is an NBA champion and no one can ever take that accomplishment away from him. But in the blank of an eye, he's now playing for a totally different franchise in a totally different part of the country. In our conversation with Dwight, Lauren and I talked to Howard about his journey, the soule searching that led him to his first title, and I was hungry to go for another

with the Sixers. Dwight, there are a lot of ways I wanted to start this interview off, and I gotta say, man, it just seems like you're in a really good place right now. You're fresh office title, you're a veteran, seems like you were espousing wisdom. Can you just kind of situate us like where you're at in life? Right now you seem like you're really happy and really a piece.

Oh man, I am a very happy in life. This year has it's had a it's been like a roller coaster for everyone, not just myself, I think, but everyone around the world. But to come out of the bubble with a championship, to be back with my family and my kids, you know, it's meant so much to actually be playing in Philadelphia. It's a great army, you know. For myself, my favorite player in life, World Chamber play for the Philadelphia seventy six ers and have to be

playing on the same team as here. It's very humbly and looking forward to just going out there and being the best of way that I could be. What a fans, what a city. But also for a big up, no he's watching, so I ever be amazing. You said something really interesting, and normally I wouldn't get this deep this early in a conversation, but you said that in order to win and in order to be as successful as you were this year and moving forward, that you need

to strip down your ego. And I wondered where that realization came for you and how you think you can help sort of preach that to others, because I think the absence of ego is something that coaches like Doc talk a lot about, and I'm just curious more about, like how you came across that journey and where you're

at with it now. Ah, well, meditating and spending some time alone, you know, just being by myself, realizing that, you know, all the things that I've had in my life, materior things, they're great, they look good, they feel good, but if it doesn't last. And so I realized that egos don't last, we have to let it go because if you continue to allow your ego to get the best of you, you can mix up on a lot

of opportunities in life. And once I really decided to drop my egos, to drop who I thought I was to everybody else, I started to see myself win, and not just in basketball, but just in all areas of my life. And you know, I feel like it's always

important to give up yourself for the greater good. And when you play a team sport and when you're part of our organization and a big playing base, the one thing that everyone wants to see is people being humble and people being grateful for the many blessings that have been the stole up and all of us. So just spending time about myself has afforded me the opportunity or understand what can't be any egos. You can be confident, but never caught and always balanced. It seems like that

ideology lines up really well with Doc Rivers ideology. And I know you have a little bit of relationship with him. Obviously you mentioned to us in the previous media group that you had spoken with him when you're making your decision, So can you tell me a little more about your relationship with him and how you think that your ideologies could line up. Oh, well, it's crazy because me and Doc have never really had a conversation all the time

I've been in the league. We've always wanted to play on each other's teams, but we've never had an opportunity too. And this year been in a bubble. One of probably his closest players, Ray Jean Rondo, was my teammate, and me and him spending hours and hours and hours together but just talking about everything, life, basketball, gleanings, reason, Doc, all this stuff. We're talking about all this and he called Doc and he told Doctor he felt like I would be great for his team, and Doc called me.

He told me that, So it's like, wow, you know, and I know that because of run though in the way I see un though, I feel like this is how Doc is because he was one of the students, and so I feel like I already known that we never really had that many conversations because of the guidance that he provided for Raision. It's amazing. I'm looking forward to a big coached by him. It's extended my career

and helping his team win a championship. Before we continue with Dwight Howard, just a quick seventy six Ers Podcast Network PSA. If you like what you're hearing and you are not yet a subscriber or a follower, please entertain the idea of changing that. We'd love to have you. And if you're listening on Apple, give us a rating. It helps us get discovered and that selfishly is what

we are all about. Speaking of outstanding audio content, we got to give a shout out to new at seventy six er finally official and former now once again Dwight Howard teammate Danny Green. Not only is Danny now part of the Sixer's family, Yes, he is a tremendous three point shooter. But he and our guy Harrison Sandford also have an excellent podcast. It's called Inside the Green Room. You can listen to it wherever you get your pods. Just search Inside the Green Room for the latest with

Danny Green. When you look back at your career, did you ever, at any point give up on the idea that you could win a title? I did some reading afterwards and I forgot about this, the image of you and Jamir Nelson sitting on the court watching the Lakers celebrate in Orlando. Did you ever give up on the possibility that a title might not happen for you? Never, not in any moment in life that I ever say, you know what, it's not gonna happen. Just about believing

the God and perseverance. It's easy to give up. It's easy to quit. It's harder to keep going because the year after year is like, man, when is it gonna happen? When am I gonna get my break? Like I thought it would never happen for maybe about ten days out of the year. But other than that, I would always say, I'm a champion. I'm a champion. I believe it I

believe it's going to happen. It's going to happen. They end up happening, and you know, I will just always tell people never give up, because you never know how coach you are to your blessing. Well, speaking of sort of offering wisdom to some of the guys that might be around, you mentioned that you think Ben Simmons could be the next Lebron James and that he could be

one of the greats in this league. Can you tell me little bit more about what's impressed you about Ben as an opponent and now what you're excited about when it comes to playing with him as a teammate. Okay, One, he's he's sixteen six eleven's playing point guard at that side. He's strong, he's athletic. His court revision is crazy. He has no fear. He can jump out to Jim. He plays with an edge. He's a great teammate. And isn't he from Australian? I love Australia, So yeah, I believe

he's gonna be amazing. He's going to be one of the grace He's from Australia, one of my favorite places in the World's obviously we know about Joel Embiid and what he's done so far in this career. And we caught up with him a few weeks ago and he said he wants to get back to the Joel Embiid of two seasons ago. He felt a little bit disappointed I think about last year, and he specifically mentioned wanting to win NBA Defensive Player of the Year is something

that he set his sights on. So that's something you've conquered multiple times. Where do you think he needs to take his game on the defensive end of the next level to be in that conversation and win that prize. Actually, the biggest thing about playing defense is being new shake. Being being the best defender on the floor every night means you got to be talking every player. You have to tell everybody where to go. You have to be the last line of defense. You have to be the

first line. Sometimes it takes real it takes confidence, but also you have to be in tremend to shake. And you know, if he wants to do that, I believe he can. I believe he can. He has a size, he has athletic ability, He has some lemth of black shots, sage shots at the rim. He can do it all, So it's going to be on him. How bad is he really wants to be the defensive Player of Year?

And I know if he is a defensive player of the Year, we will have a great chance, a greater chance and we have now we will have a greater chance to be voicing up a trophy at the end of the year. We've heard you talk about Ben and Joel a bit, and we obviously know you're bullish and optimistic about the roster. What else do you like about the makeup of this team. We got shooters, shooters, We got guys who can put the ball up and score. Then we got guys who play great defense. From just

playing against these guys, the defense is crazy. The defense is crazy, and now everybody's a little bit hongry. Joel is more upset. Ben is coming off the injury. He's going to be hyper on the defensive end and wanting to show people who we use. We have the right coach, you have the right system, and this is all about time, you know. So I think that the guys that we have when this team, Tobias, great defensive Dible, great defensive player, Danny Green. I think Danny Green has the best hands

In the NBA, he steal the ball, swipe downs. It's crazy at it. So I think we do have the opportunity to be one of the top defensive teams in the league this year with the roster that we do at We started talking about Philadelphia. Well ended on Philadelphia. You mentioned Wilt Chamberlain. Is it true that you almost got a tattoo in his honor on your arm? Can you tell us that story? And when you really started to develop an affinity for Will Well, I've had this

affinity for Will since I was a little kid. I never watched them play. What made me Lightwood Chamberlain was I had this robot and used to always talk about Wilt chamber all where he went to school, and how tall he was, all his highlights for Kansas, how fast it is to run. And I just got infatuated with wood Chamber and I wanted to be tall. I wanted

to be able to jump high. I want to be able to get all the rebounds and either to this day, it's like, man, I want to chase the wood Chamber or trying to get every rebounder because he's at the top. So I love wood chamber I decided that I wanted to be in the chattooed on my arm, and I searched about a million pictures of him, and I found this one picture that I really loved, and I got

ready to put it on my arm. And the purpose was every time I shot the ball, every time I looked up, I would see him because he was the person that has really motivated me to be the best I can do. And nobody wanted me to get wood chamber on my arm at the time. So what they did was they made a big and they put it in my room. So I have a big painted a whilt chamberman in my room and that's my favorite player.

Read books on him. I studied tons and tons of film on him, and he's just a big inspiration to me. How strong he was, a humble he was. And the crazy part about all of this is I lived right next door to the Wild Chamberman's house in California, So every day I woke up and I looked at his house. Such a great story. Really appreciate the time. Thrilled to have you here and looking forward to seeing you once

we get all together the training complex. Looking forward it to you, guys, to I love hearing that passion for Philadelphia from Dwight Howard, a newcomer to the city, and the really impressive stories he shared about his idolization of Wilt Chamberlain. You know the first video that we posted to our at Sixers channel the other day from the first training camp practice. How awesome was that seeing Shake

Milton lobbed up to Dwight Howard for a dunk. It's hard not to get pumped up even seeing these GRIBs and drabs of video content coming from the training complex. And the craziest part is that the preseason opener is essentially a week away, and next Monday here on the broadcast will preview the Sixers exhibition opener against none other than the Boston Celtics. I'm Brian Seltzer. Thanks for listening, Talk to next time. See you