Loud and proud

The 36-year-old has been a star player in the US NBA for 18 years. He is also a strident activist and anti-racism icon, speaking up in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. No matter what’s at stake, he wants to make sure the truth gets out there, h

There is perhaps no sporting powerhouse like a basketball “big man”. They dwarf you with their height, intimidate you with their stony biceps, are fast enough to keep pace with middle-distance runners in the home stretch, and have the endurance and pluckiness to go 10 rounds in the ring with a heavyweight boxer.

Dwight Howard — 6’10”, 120kg, 18 years in the National Basketball Association (NBA) — is a genuine big man if ever there was one.

He first emerged in the early 2000s as a prodigy tipped to take over the legacy of resident biggest man Shaquille O’Neal; then as a marquee player who led the Orlando Magic to the NBA Finals in 2009 (like O’Neal in 1994); and finally evolved into a crucial member of the support cast when LeBron James led the Los Angeles Lakers to the title in 2020. He won three Defensive Player of the Year awards, was picked for all-NBA teams eight times, and though he’s still going strong in the winter of his career, has even done enough off the court to ensure he will be remembered as much for being an activist-icon as for his on-court heroics.

Despite the towering frame and reputation, when Howard, 36, walks into a room, he puts the others in it at ease with a friendly grin and an extended right hand. He is meeting us just hours after landing in Delhi from San Francisco — for a friend’s wedding, on his third visit to India in just over a decade — but seems in the mood to talk.

“My experiences in India have been great. The first two times I came, I got a chance to play cricket and learn a little bit about the culture. I really had an awesome time trying the food and things like that,” Howard, wearing a black T-shirt and grey track pants with orange sunglasses perched at the back of his head, says during a chat at a five-star hotel in Delhi. “This is going to be a totally different experience. What I heard is that a wedding here is a week-long party. So I’m looking forward to it.”

Howard exudes a positivity that sits sharply in contrast with the angry and divisive debates he is often embroiled in on social media. “There have been situations where I have been blamed for my team’s failures, for coaches being fired. People have lied about my character, things about my family and kids have been said that rile you up. Social media is such a negativity-driven space at times,” he says.

Howard has spoken out on matters ranging from the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement to the urgency of the climate crisis. On social media platform Pixstory, where Howard is one of the investors, he routinely acknowledges the efforts of prominent black Americans and enlightens his followers about the struggles of his community. In

I would love nothing more than to win my very first NBA championship. But I just feel like our people – we need attention. DWIGHT HOWARD in 2020, arguing to delay the NBA season amid custodial killings and widespread Black Lives Matter protests

February, which is observed as Black History Month in the US, he highlighted the pioneering work of Earl Francis Lloyd (the first African-American to play in the NBA) and Bessie Coleman (the first black person to earn an international pilot’s license).

He was at the forefront of the BLM protests of 2020, sparked by the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25 that year. Floyd was handcuffed by policemen, pinned to the ground (over an allegedly counterfeit $20 bill) and died calling out that he couldn’t breathe.

At the time, the Lakers were eyeing their first NBA championship title in 10 years, and Howard his first ever. Yet he was part of a players’ coalition calling for the 2019-20 NBA season to be delayed (it had already been interrupted by the pandemic), as he felt basketball would be a distraction from the movement against racism and police brutality.

“I would love nothing more than to win my very first NBA championship. But I just feel like our people — we need attention,” Howard said at the time. “I really feel like our world is hurting right now. So much stuff is going on in our world, man, and I just feel like we don’t need to get distracted by anything. It’s hurting me and my family. It’s hurting all our families, and everybody is feeling it right now. I just think that we need to focus on what’s going on.”

A couple of weeks after Floyd’s death, the killing of African-American Rayshard Brooks by a police officer in Atlanta caused further resentment among the black community. Howard attended the court hearing against the police officer who killed Brooks, wearing a white shirt with “Breathe Again” emblazoned on it. The incident occurred in his home city, and Howard’s uncle was the district attorney initially responsible for prosecuting the police officer.

While the NBA season eventually restarted on schedule on July 30, 2020, there were further interruptions due to protests after another incident of police brutality against a black man in Kenosha, Wisconsin. By the time the season finally concluded in October, though, Howard had something to savour as the Lakers defeated Miami Heat in the finals.

Howard was born in Atlanta to Dwight Sr and Sheryl Howard on December 8, 1985. His father was a law enforcement officer in the state of Georgia while his mother was part of the inaugural women’s basketball team of her college. By the time Howard was 10, he was harbouring ambitions of a professional career in basketball.

He swiftly rose up the ranks to be recognised as the best American high school basketball player among his peers. It prompted him to forego college and enrol for the 2004 NBA draft, where he was the overall No 1 pick by Orlando.

When Howard speaks, he gives the sense of a politician in waiting. There’s the measured tone, the open body language, and the keenness to be forthright on divisive issues. “Oh yeah, politics interests me. When I was younger, I wanted to be the first black president of America but (Barack) Obama beat me to it,” he laughs.

There is no denying that Howard is an ambitious man. “I started thinking about the legacy I want to leave when I was 10 years old, and I decided I want to go into the NBA. I always wanted to be one of the most dominant and greatest players to play the game,” he says.

Howard is certain that he has accomplished what he had to on the basketball court. Ask him about his all-time best starting five and he doesn’t hesitate to include himself. “Will Chamberlain, Dwight Howard, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and Kevin Garnett.”

But his outspokenness can rub people the wrong way. It perhaps cost him a place in the NBA 75 team, a list of the league’s top 75 players, released to mark its 75th anniversary last year. “Whatever the reason that he got left out, there’s something more than basketball to it,” former Orlando Magic coach Stan Van Gundy, who coached Howard at his peak, told the New York Times recently.

Howard seems to have moved on from the snub. “I was pretty upset when it happened. In all honesty, I have done a lot for the game of basketball. I don’t want to now waste energy trying to say I made it to a list,” he says.

Despite the negativity that engulfs platforms like Twitter in his view, he has 6.3 million followers on it and another 3 million on Instagram. “I want to make sure that the truth gets out on social media,” he says. As for basketball? “I just want to get better and better, and enjoy my game.”