Dwight Howard was an announcer for the first half of the 2010 T-Mobile Rookie Challenge and the dunk-off at halftime between DeMar DeRozan and Eric Gordon. HTD takes a look back at Howard’s night and examines how he performed.
- Howard really enjoys watching his colleagues play basketball. He offered up a lot of “ooos” and “aaas.”
- Howard loves the word “great.” He described nearly every player in the game as a “great player.”
- Dwight Howard refers to Marc Gasol as Baby Jesus because of his beard. His fellow announcers, Kevin Harlan and Kevin McHale thought it was very funny and began using the term themselves.
- Howard offered up his thoughts on Craig Sager’s suit – he didn’t seem to be a fan.
- Howard did some of his now famous imitations of his head coach, Stan Van Gundy. As usual, they were very funny.
- Howard kept referring to Brandon Jennings as Gumby because of his haircut. Howard said he learned of the name from his twitter followers.
- Later when Marc’s old brother Pau was shown on television, Howard said that he also looked like Baby Jesus.
- Howard went on to praise the offensive games of both the Gasols and said that it was “cheating” to have two kids be very skilled seven-footers.
- Howard also had good things to say about Nets Center Brook Lopez. It’s obvious that Howard has a soft spot in his heart for big men.
- Howard and McHale had some pretty good back and forths. Howard made some jokes about McHale’s jumping ability and McHale made some comments about Michael Beasley’s game-winner against the Magic earlier this year.
- But, overall, McHale was very complimentary of Howard and was especially impressed with Howard’s offense over the past month. Howard was very appreciative of McHale’s comments.
- When McHale told Howard he had a mix of a big man’s game and a little man’s game, Howard said that he had to because of how skilled the little guys are. Sacramento rookie Tyreke Evans had perfect timing because he made a beautiful play at the hoop immediately after Howard finished his sentence.
- Howard is a big fan of Evans – he said he was very impressed by his play and agreed with McHale when McHale called Evans the Rookie of the Year.
- Dwight Howard raved about having a guy like Patrick Ewing on his coaching staff when Ewing was brought up. Ewing coached the Sophomores team alongside Raptors Forward Chris Bosh.
- Howard liked the way DeJaun Blair attacks the glass.
- Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith joined the team for the dunk-off at halftime.
- Barkley immediately asked Howard to talk about Shaquille O’Neal’s comments and even said “Superman, my ass” in an attempt to egg Howard on, but Howard wouldn’t budge. He stayed firm, refused to comment and said yes when Kenny Smith asked him if his play would do the talking.
- Howard went on to make fun of Charles Barkley’s jumping ability.
- Howard said that DeRozan likes to use one of Howard’s dunks and used it in the McDonalds All-American dunk contest last year.
- Howard was impressed with the dunks, but not overly impressed. Howard said that it was hard to be in a dunk contest because every dunk has been done. When Kenny Smith brought up his Superman dunk and Nate Robinson’s dunk to dispute Howard’s claim, Howard reminded them that Robinson pushed off his head.
- Howard said that he did not think anything really new and creative would be done in Saturday’s night dunk contest while Kenny Smith guaranteed there would be.
Howard was exactly like he was always is. He was very funny and interacted well with the other announcers. It was cool to see Howard talk about his peers and to see how big of a fan of the league he is. Howard appears to have a real appreciation for the game. Overall, it was great to see Howard’s personality on display for all to see.
(Andrew Melnick is Howard the Dunk’s lead blogger and a contributor at NFL Mocks Subscribe to his RSS feed and add him on Twitter to follow him daily.)