Rabu, 26 November 2008
♥ Dwight Howard
 Halloween night in Memphis didn't go as we'd planned. Joe Murphy/NBAE/Getty Images |
It was kind of upsetting to lose our first game at home. I was just so upset because we were getting booed and people were mad at us and I was like, "OK, guys, it's the first game of the season. I'm pretty sure every game won't be like this." I mean, how can you not even vote for your own team in the first game? They were like, "You guys are a waste!" And I'm like, "Dang!" It's crazy because people don't think we can hear, but it's like if you were, I don't know, speaking in front of a crowd. I guess a pastor would be someone who could understand, or a motivational speaker or whatever. When you're on the court, or in front of a lot of people you see everything that's going on. And for some reason, you can hear everything that's going on. You know, for me, I can hear and see everything, and I'm like, these people have got to understand that sometimes we have bad days. The fans treat us well, but we're still humans, too. They call me Superman, but at the end of "Super" it still says "man". I'm still a human, and we all make mistakes and I was just so upset after the game that I just wish people watching the game would understand that we had a bad night. Just like their reaction, we got down, too.
I'm pretty sure everybody gets booed, but every time I get booed I think about what if I went to somebody else's job and booed them. Like, what if I went to Disney World and I didn't like the show and I was like "Boooo! This show sucks!" in front of the people who put in their hard work the whole summer or however long they had to practice to get their parts right for the play or whatever. You know, I think about that all the time. I wouldn't go to anybody's job. I've booed before and I've had to catch myself and remember that I don't want people to boo me, so I'm not going to boo other people and their performance, even though it might have been bad that night.
 Two costumes I didn't get to use. |
But I didn't get a chance to wear that costume. I had two outfits I wanted to wear on Halloween and I'm upset we had a game on Halloween because I really wanted to go out. My OTHER outfit was Tyrone Biggums. I know a lot of people watch The Chappelle Show. Tyrone Biggums was the little guy on the show with the powder lips always drinking this stuff called Red Balls. "Red Balls, they give you wings!!" If you've never seen Tyrone Biggums, you've got to get the first season of The Dave Chappelle Show. He's on there and they were doing The Fear Factor, it was hilarious. So I had both of those outfits and I'd been planning it for like a month and a half, and I didn't even get a chance to wear them!
Halloween loss in Memphis
And then we lost to Memphis! Rudy hit that shot at the buzzer! As soon as he caught the ball, I said it was going in. Soon as he caught it, I said, "Oh man, he's gonna make this shot!" And it was, like, "Dang, we just lost again!" And it wasn't even about who we lost to, it was just the fact that the first two games of the season we lost and everybody was so upset about us starting 0-2. And I'm thinking to myself, we've got 80 more games left, I'm pretty sure we're not going to go 0-82. On the other hand, nobody's ever gone undefeated in the NBA, so losing a couple games got everybody a little frustrated, and I was just thinking to myself I've got to keep my teammates together and we came back our third game with a way better effort. We played hard, I even played a lot better and I wasn't out there thinking so much, I was just out there having fun and just playing. We needed that win to get ourselves going, so now we've just got to play with more confidence and start having fun.
My new house and giving back
Off the court, I just moved into another house and as soon as I moved, it was crazy, it got out that I moved and bought another house and it was on TMZ, it was on the news, in the paper the next day … and I'm like "All because I got a new house?" This is supposed to be my place to get away, my oasis, and I can't even do that anymore. I just hope I don't have many people coming by. I got some horses roaming around protecting the place, though.
Man, it was crazy, though. I was upset because my house was all on the internet and then I read some of the comments the people were saying about the house, about how I should give back, and I was all thinking, I wish these people really knew how much stuff I do for my community and just for people in general.
It may not end up on TV but I'd rather my good deeds be seen by people and not just do it for TV, because I don't want it to seem like it's just for show or it's just for TV, you know? Or so somebody can say Dwight Howard did a good job. Whatever I do for my community, my fans or my friends, I do it because I LOVE doing that kind of stuff. After reading some of those comments about buying the house and all this stuff, I'm all 1. I work hard to be able to buy a house of this caliber, but at the same time I will never forget where I came from.
So I will always give back, I will always give to others. The giving man … anybody that's giving will get blessed and that's how I feel. Give and it will be given back to you. It may not be the way that you want it to be, but you will always get blessed out of it. I don't get blessed by people saying stuff, I get happy or excited by when I give to people. The way I get it back is seeing that smile or just a thank you, or a hug, or little stuff like that.
I remember last summer, I took $25,000 out and went to the Boys and Girls Club of Orlando and took like 75 kids to Toys 'R' Us and it was a lot of those kids' first time ever going to Toys R Us. And just seeing their reaction when they're going shopping, buying THEIR OWN toys. And one of the little girls ran up to me, gave me a hug and said "Thank You Mr. Dwight Howard, I've never been here before, it's my first time!!" And it was so touching because I always wanted to be a Toys R Us kid growing up I remember singing, "I don't wanna grow up, I'm a Toys R Us kid!" And I was always like "I don't wanna grow up! I wanna go to Toys R US" And I never had a chance to go to Toys R Us until I got into the NBA, so that kind of touched me right there, seeing that little girl happy and she was crying a little bit.
Off the court, the only thing that's been going on is I've been trying to get my house settled, get my house straight. A couple of my friends from high school who I grew up with, they stay here with me, so they're always here with me.
When I first moved into the house I was, like, Wow. Every time I step into my house, every day I wake up the first thing I do is I thank God for everything he's given me. This is something I could never have imagined having at 22, 23 years old. Doing what I dreamed is playing basketball. Being able to purchase things, or do things for people that I know that without having all this stuff I wouldn't be able to do. So just being able to give back and see those smiles on people's faces, that really makes my day.
Back on the court
And then on the court, what makes my day is dunking on somebody, or blocking somebody's shot and everybody's like "OOOOOOOOOH" or "AAAAAAH, that was tight! I wanna dunk like that one day!!" Life is great, I can't complain.
On a day that we have practice I wake up about 8, 8:30 wake up, walk around the house a little bit, wake myself up, eat a little breakfast, and just go to practice. We practice for like five hours, so we'll be practicing all day and when I get home all I want to do is go to sleep. And by that time, it's time to go to practice again!
Hanging out with my friends
On my days off I just enjoy spending time with my friends, with the people I love most. Chilling, relaxing you know. Me and my teammates got together for Sunday night football, everybody came over, watched the football game, chilled out a little bit and had some ribs. Last year most of my teammates would come by my house and we were always at my house watching the fights, having pool parties. Not pool parties like in the pool, but with the pool sticks … billiards! For New Year's I have my friends come over, I'm always trying to keep all of us together.
Watch for DwightHoward.com
I will say this, though… DwightHoward.com is on the way! I'm going to have some videos, man, you'll get to see Dwight Howard off the court, all the funny stuff.
We were in Memphis, I have to tell this story … We were going to eat, me and my teammates, we were walking back on Beale Street and this one guy, he was like 5-9, 5-10 and he was built like an action figure, all ripped up and everything. And he was doing flips for money … all he was doing was running up and down the street doing flips. He's got a bowl in the middle and everybody's just watching him doing flips. And then, we're walking back to the hotel, we almost get there and there was this other dude, he was calling himself the Playa from the Himalayas and he was dancing his butt off, he's dancing, moving, I don't know what he was doing, and he was all yelling, "I'm the Playa from the Himalayas!" He was like Jerome from Martin -- "Jeromey Rome!!" -- that's who he was like! I'm like "Man, look at this dude!" I got it on film, so when DwightHoward.com gets up and running that's gonna be one of my first videos … The man from Memphis, he's walking the dog, doing the superman. It was crazy.
 Did he just say I'm not athletic? |
So I guess Skip Bayless is a cool dude I don't know too much about him. But the other day he was, like, "Dwight Howard has no athletic ability!" That just upset me that he was saying I'm not athletic at all, and I'm just like "Dude! Did you see the dunk contest?" I'm not being cocky or anything, but I thought some of that stuff was pretty athletic! And I'm pretty sure that he couldn't do that on a video game! So, for him to say that I'm not athletic? That was killing me! And he was, like, "Dwight Howard has no athletic ability at all!" Um, I think that was one of the reasons that I got drafted out of high school, because I was raw … and I'm still kind of raw. But, I was athletic. Did he just say I'm not athletic? Are you kidding me?! Skip Bayless … I don't think he ever put on a jock strap and played basketball or any sport! I don't know. He seems like a cool dude. I watch all his shows, but that kind of upset me when he said I wasn't athletic.
People are going to hate all the time. Katt Williams said it best, "If you've got five haters at the beginning of the day try to have fifteen haters by that night." And that must mean that you are doing something right. That's how I look at it. But I go in the gym every day and try to get better.
I was in the barber shop getting my haircut for the first game when Skip Bayless said that. As soon as he said that everyone in the barbershop stopped cutting hair and just started laughing. Everybody just started laughing! And the Orlando general manager Otis Smith was in there too, and I looked at him and I said," I thought you drafted me because I was athletic. And he said, "Yeah, I did." I was, like, man that's crazy right there, man. That's crazy. We had fun up there in the barber shop. But it's all good.
My teammate … with no neck
My teammates are cool. I love my teammates. I love 'em. Our new vet, he's the best. Anthony Johnson. I said last time, but we call him 'Little Neck Johnson.' We were in Memphis, Tennessee last week and before the game … I thought I would never see the day that I saw someone that had literally no neck. We thought Anthony Johnson had no neck, but this dude right here, oh my God! Like, if he had a mock turtleneck shirt on, it would have come up to his nose. And I'm like, Anthony Johnson ain't got no neck, but at least he can wear mock necks. And this dude, his shoulders were at his ears. He was telling everybody. "Hey, yo, playas don't go that way, come back this way!" And you can imagine somebody talking with their shoulders, I'm like, "Dude, relax your shoulders, man, chill out!" But he couldn't do it, he didn't have no neck!
♥ My
doll smiled.
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