The Bryce Crawford Podcast - The Dwight Howard Interview (EP 92)

Episode Date: April 21, 2025

In this episode, Bryce interviews Dwight Howard about faith, athletics, and more!

All right, what's going on, guys. Welcome back to another episode of the Bryce Crawford podcast. I'm Bryce, and today I got a very, very special guest with us today. We got Dwight Howard with us, Dwight. How are you doing, man? I am, what's the word? I am super-cali-fragilistic, SB Aladocious today. I'm so blessed and grateful and thankful and just happy that I'm alive, man.

Amen. Another day of life. Dude, thanks for coming on. I was so happy. I haven't be on the show, man. I remember when you reached out to me on the DMs, and you probably was like, oh, he's not going to respond. That's how I felt.

Yeah, I didn't think you were going to. You hit me back really quick, and I was like, dang. Yeah, it was insane. It was quick, and I was just like, man, you know, I really want to continue to spread, you know, the message to gospel. So, come on. Thank you. I appreciate you.

I appreciate you. I was just telling Dwight when I was in third grade, I had a subscription, Sports Illustrated kids, and my first magazine came in the mail. Well, there was two, I remember. There's one of you Duncan in the Orlando Magic jersey. It's like a side angle picture. But the poster that I told you I had in my room was you and the Superman.

It was like the Orlando Magic Superman thing, and you had your hands on your hips like this. And I had it on my door when I was growing up. I feel old, man. It is awesome, though, like, because I remember being young. and having Julius Irvin his jersey. When I got in high school, that was the only jersey I had was Julius Irvin.

And I met him so many times after that. And then he was one of the people that introduced me into the, inducted me into the Hall of Fame. Yeah. So just circling back and now me and him are doing business together. He's here in Atlanta. It's crazy. Full circle.

Well, congrats on being in the Hall of Fame. That's huge, man. It's huge. What does that like? How does that feel? To be honest, okay, this is what it feels like. Imagine when we leave this earth. Well, before you leave this earth, you get a call.

When you look at the phone, it's Jesus on the hotline. And he say, my son, that's what, for all your hard work, dedication in life, for being a disciple of Christ, you and your name has been put in the Lamb's Book of Life. You will be forever in the kingdom of God. That's how that felt for me. Like hearing Jesus called me home because of all the hard work, dedication, effort, energy, sacrifice, love, so many things had to come with making it to the NBA and to see it finally like actually like at the end of it

I'm getting honored to be in the Hall of Fame it's just nothing but God being knowing that he is absolutely real and it's only because of my experience you know everybody has had many different experiences in life yeah and so through my experiences ending up in the Hall of Fame, man, it was amazing. I probably cried.

Like, I haven't cried so hard of happiness my whole life. I didn't know it was possible to cry of happiness like that. Like, I literally was, like, hand on my knees down. Like, thank you, Jesus. Like, I can't believe, like, tears is flowing. I cried so much that I didn't have no more tears. left in my eyes. Like my body had let everything out. Yeah. And it was all for happiness. Yeah. Which is just insane. Well, I appreciate everything you've done for basketball and just being like a

hero, role model for like the same way you looked up to Julius serving. There's so many people that were looking up to you. I mean, dude, you were on my door when I was a kid. It was so crazy. But, uh, but I want to go into kind of like, because I think it's important to talk about faith and sports because I know there's a lot of young people that try to understand like how faith correlates with sports so I want to kind of backtrack a little bit and start back to what it was like growing up for you and how faith is intertwined with sports I mean you were raised in Atlanta right you grew up you went to Christian school southwest Atlanta Christian Academy shout out the South our school soccer I started playing basketball at a very young age and basically

my whole life is a faith story and I would say that because Before I was actually born, my mom lost seven children. Wow. And I was supposed to be one of those kids that did not make it, the eighth child. I was supposed to not be here. And there were prayer warriors from my church, Fellowship of Faith, Christian International Church in East Point, who prayed for my mom and my dad, prayed with them every day, prayed for me to enter into this world,

and for me to get here took so much strength and faith because so many of my brothers and sisters before I made it here did make it. So just to get to be born was the faith of my parents,

the faith of the people in my church, the faith of everyone around me who had this idea that there was going to be a child that was going to be born. That was going to be a miracle baby to the world. And

December the 8th, that happened. I was born. And it's just so ironic that my mom lost seven kids and I would have been the eighth child that I was born on December the 8th. The 8th day of the 12th month.

In the 12 month, number 12 means wise counsel, or council. Jesus said, how many disciples? 12. 12. Yeah, so So just going from being born to not actually going to my school and my church. My church, the whole motto of our church was faith and learning, faith mixed with learning.

So our minds for faith in God and learning, the word of God, learning, everything that come with being on this earth. I'm moved by your parents' faith, man. I feel prayer is, I'm not gonna lie, prayer has been something that I've been challenging myself with recently, trying to get in that healthy rhythm of like always praying. I used to be the guy that would only pray if I needed something. And then now I'm trying to make it this consistent rhythm of like,

dang God, I can't believe that happened. Or like, thank you God. Or man, I'm angry. Like, make that a prayer life. And there was a verse that literally, when you were talking, I just can't stop thinking about it of your parents. It's in James 5, verse 17. It says, the fervent prayer.

of the righteous man conquers much. And all I can think of is all those people in your church and your family praying, praying, and now you're here. And after the seven children that didn't make it, and even in the same way like Abraham and Sarah, you know, Sarah wasn't able to have kids, as Isaac and impacts nations through Isaac. And so in that same way, like, you know,

your mother's kid after six, seven missing. Yes. And the way you get to be a role model now for millions of kids that want to grow up and chase their dreams of using their athletics for the glory of God and using those things, I think it's so encouraging. I could hyperfixate on that the whole time. I think that's so powerful.

And it's just so crazy how prayer actually works. You know, so a lot of times we get twisted like, what is prayer? prayer is it's a long time with with god how do you want things to happen in life how do you want your faith to match your works because the bible states in mark 226 faith without works is dead so your faith and your works have to match your faith is what you believe because it's what the evidence of things what is faith faith is the evidence of things hope for so This is something that you are hoping to happen, but you got to have a belief that it will happen.

When I was 10 years old, I told my dad I was going to the NBA. And he said, how do you know? I said, I know it. I believe it. And I know that I'm better than all the guys I just saw play. And now this is my time. He said, well, if you want to make it, you have to sacrifice. And I said, Dad, I'm ready to sacrifice whatever it is to make it to the NBA.

And mind you, I was 10 years old. How many 10 year olds believe and know at 10 that they're going to make it to the NBA or to professional sports? I did. I just had this strong sense of faith that anything I put my mind to, I can do. And that's what goes back to prayer and how the trick of the enemy is to keep your mind distracted from everything in life

keep your mind with a short mindset where just think about Instagram and the reels and TikTok these are shorts everything is a minute long or 30 seconds because the enemy wants us to have this this mind this monkey brain where we're all over the place

that's why a lot of times when people pray it's hard for them to pray because they start going all over the place they get this monkey brain. Yeah. And that's why you want to hear the still small, sweet voice of God, you got to get alone. You got to get away from the noise.

You got to get quiet. Why so your faith? You can see it. Yeah. It's implanted in your brain. And now it's time to go put it in the work. I like that. I heard a quote the other day where this pastor was saying

how like a lot of people pray for God's hand, like God to give him something, when Moses was praying to see his face. Yes. And I was like, dang, that impacted my life because I'm like, man, I feel like if I can just keep my eyes on him, everything else is just going to like fall into place. And I even love that about my prayer life too is because like you mentioned the word manifestation earlier. Like I feel like there were times in my life where when I think a manifestation, I think of like trying to like willfully force something to happen like I'm going to make this thing happen. And there are times in my life where I'm like, I'm going to make this thing happen.

And I'm like, all right, God, give me this thing. and he doesn't give it to me. And I'm like, man, why are you giving it to me? And I realize it's because maybe he just doesn't trust me with it. Or maybe that thing's going to crush me. Or maybe that isn't good. And I love that about my prayer life too. Because if I were to personally, like, get everything that I wanted,

I would be crushed, angry, hurtful, rude, all that junk. But if I pray and go, okay, God, like, is this for me? Is this really for me? And see what that looks like. then, you know, maybe it, you know, maybe it's, okay, maybe this isn't a, because sometimes people think if they don't get what they ask for in prayer, that God's not responding to their prayer. Yes.

I learned very quickly that God responds with a no. But I think that people, see, people think that God is a genie. People try to use God like a genie. So that the only, that they're thinking prayer means, God, I'm praying that you bless me with this right now. and they expect it to happen right now. It doesn't happen like that. Yeah.

What are we doing in that time period before it to get to God? Are we in his presence? Are we staying in his presence? Are we fasting? Are we reading? Are we praying? Are we meditating? Are we separating ourselves from the world so we can actually hear from God?

Think about what Jesus did in the Bible, in the Garden of Gisemite. What did he do? He had to go and pray. and get away from everyone. When he went to go get tempted in Matthew, he had to pray and get away from everyone. When he went and fasted for 40 days, he had to get away

from everybody. Why? Because the devil wanted to tempt him. The devil tempted him. After those 40 days of temptation, what happened with Jesus? It was transfigured. He went through a process. Why? Because all those temptations,

the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life, it didn't hit him. He went without sin. And so his prayers, everything was answered for him because he actually set and went through the process. A lot of times we don't want to go through the process. Yeah. We just want to rub the bottle of the genie that we expect God is,

but that's not God. We have to pray. And he asks us, like you said, see if he could trust us. with those gifts before he give us these gifts I started praying when I was 10 years old to go to the NBA

did I go to the NBA at 10? No. No! I had to tarry, I had to wait, I had to be patient, I had to go through a process of elimination. I had to eliminate people around me. I had to eliminate

things from my body. I had to eliminate all these things that was stop me from getting to where my goal, which is the NBA. Yeah. Did I stop praying every day? No, I pray every single day from the time I was 10 to the time I got to the NBA. Do you feel like that your parents and your parents' prayer life, how they prayed for you and how they heard for you?

Do you think that impacted your prayer life today and how you pray? I think, to be honest, after being a 39-year-old young man, and experiencing so much at a very young age, I've come to realize that we are all, every single one of us are on this, our own journey to find out who we truly are. And our parents, their job was to lay a foundation. And my parents laid a great and amazing foundation

of love, but also prayer. and what I did was take it to a whole other level. So I saw what they did and praying for me to make it to the NBA. And I used that same faith. Every single person had to see me become a soul vessel on this planet. I use that same attitude for every aspect of my life. Whatever I do in my life, I'm going to have that faith of a mustard seed. I'm going to believe Philippians 413 that I can do all things through Christ that strength

is me. That is going to be my mindset because of the prayer warriors and the people that came before me. Yeah. So they established the foundation. My parents did. So when I came, I was able to walk into my destiny. That was one of my mentors told me that one of the things when I started walking, I have a mentor when I started walking with him.

He said, my revelation should. be your foundation. Yes. And the things that took me five years to understand shouldn't take you that long. It should take you six months. It should take you one month, you know? And so I love that. I love that.

Yes, that's so true. It's crazy that you said that. So let's start at 10, right? So you're 10, you're praying for the NBA. You're trying to figure out who you are. I feel like that's a good age to say, okay, when you're 10 years old, you're starting to find out about yourself. You're starting to try to discover who you are.

Just a little bit. Yeah, you know what I mean? Like that, that foot in the door of like, okay, who am I really? What are some hardships you faced? What was your childhood like growing up from 10, probably through high school? 10 through high school. Well, I had to keep my head out of the clouds because I was so locked in on going to the NBA. So what I had to do, center myself, stay grounded and focus on the moment.

The focusing on the moment, knowing that I already have an end goal was what kept my high school times amazing. my end goal was to be in the NBA so how I do everything in life is through my faith and through my faith I know that I have to see the end before I start in the beginning so I had to see the end of something the end of my goal was to be in the NBA

so now I had to go back to the beginning what is going to be my steps to get to the NBA I have to stay locked in school. I'm going to be going to school for four years of high school, which means I can't get distracted. I got to stay focused. I got to work out. I can't go out and party, do all the things that people in high school might do.

I can't do that. I got to wake up at 4 o'clock. I got to get to the track, the gym. All these things were things that I planned out and prepared myself for before I even went to the NBA. So now when my name was called, one, it was an expectation. Two, it was a knowing, not a belief. Those are two different things to me. It was a knowing.

I knew that I was going to heaven. I knew that I was going to the NBA. I knew that I was going to be the first pick in the draft. I just didn't kind of have this, I believe so. I think. It's no, I know. A confidence. I know.

Like, I know Jesus is real. I know what God did for my life. These things, it's a different mindset. The mindset of all people, like we have to go from this. Oh, well, I think so. I believe so. To know. I know.

And once you have that, I know mindset, anything in life is possible. I know I can. I know I can. I think I can. I know I can. That's my favorite book. The little engine that could. Yeah.

That's all he said in the whole book, I know I can. I think I can. I know I can. And that was my thought process from 10 to 18. No, I can. Every time I played against somebody, I know I can be. And that mindset just stuck with me even to this day. It seems like you knew you're calling from a pretty young age.

And I feel like a lot of people, especially when I go, we'll go to college campuses and talk to students. A lot of people are like, how do I know what my calling is? How do I know? And, you know, I try to encourage people. you know, God gives everyone gifts. I'm not good at graphic design. A lot of people are. You can use that to glorify God.

A lot of people are good at athletics. You can use that glorify God. But you seemed to have a grip at 10 years old. Like I really, you're saying, I know. I know I'm supposed to go to the NBA. For people, especially in athletics, that have a desire, an awesome desire, like athletics, NBA, or maybe the NFL,

maybe the MLB, how did you keep your eyes on God as like the main priority while also putting in the work for the NBA without making it an idol in your life, if that makes sense? Because I just had a deeper understanding of what basketball was the purpose of basketball. The purpose of basketball was to bring me closer to Christ.

I took that as, okay, if I'm going to work hard every day, my faith says I'm going to the NBA. My faith is I want to be the number one pick. My faith is I want to be the best player to play basketball. Now, my work's got to match it, which means everything that I do with basket. The work has to match it. Mentally, physically, and spiritually, it has to match my faith. Now, these two things match anything is possible in his name, because that's what he said.

And then he also told us that greater works than this you will do. And so Jesus is telling me that, and he's giving me this. his body, his vessel. And he's saying, you could have all these gifts if you ask, then I'm going to ask. And then I'm going to stay in the will of the most high God. So all these things that I want to happen in my life happen. You graduate high school, going to the NBA, you're playing everything.

Like you're living the dream in that moment. You're like, this is the thing that I've been praying for. This is the thing I've been working hard towards you're in the moment. moment, there have been moments in my life where right before I became a Christian, I thought I had everything I wanted. I was 16 at the time, you know, very limited, but I thought I had everything I wanted. Yeah. And I was still, I don't know, sad. How in that daily rhythm of being in the NBA, things like that, because let's be real, professional athlete, working out all the time, games, traveling, and then outside of the regular season,

if you're going to the playoffs, you've got more games, and then off season, and then you got other stuff. And then outside of basketball, you got, you know, business stuff you're doing, then you got this. I really believe if the devil can't make you sin, he'll make you busy and keep you like staying. Not saying that all busyness is a bad, but distractions. How did you keep your eyes on Jesus in the midst of those distractions?

How did you create space for Jesus in the midst of a busy schedule? There's times when I fail. There's so many times where I didn't have my eyes on Jesus. And how did that affect your daily life? I did it affect my daily life. Because any time I take my eyes off, Jesus, chaos erupts in my life. Chaos happens when you allow your desires to get the best of you. And when you are a professional athlete, you make it to the impact.

NBA and you are then giving millions of dollars. So in the process of getting millions of dollars, now you have access to the world. Literally everything. Everything. And so you got to think, you said that 16 is when you were thinking that you had everything in the world, right? Think about two years later, being 18 years old, being in the NBA, coming from the smallest school in Georgia, I had 16.

people in my classroom. Yes. Oh my God. Ten girls and six guys were in my classroom. I had 300 people in my school total. That is including the principals, the staff, the janitor, the babies, all the way up to 12th grade was my school. I went to the same school, my whole life. So I went from this little bubble to now thrown into the whole world. Yeah. and giving millions of dollars. So at 18, I'm like, I can do anything. Yeah. Who do I need to listen to?

And this is where the devil, or I don't, people like to say the devil, and I call it my lower self. The lowest version of myself wants to entertain my desire. And, you know, sometimes you want to. to blame that on somebody else, but we have to look ourselves in the mirror and hold ourselves accountable. Why? Because all of us have to bear our own cross. Jesus died for all our sins. We are under, we're not under the law anymore. We are under his grace. But we still got to bear our own cross. Yep. Yep. So me at 18, I'm dealing with so much because what comes with money.

evil and good but when you love money that is the root of all evil so me being around money me being around people who might love money it brought so much chaos and turmoil and just

crazy around and I just had to decipher figure out how to move And there were times where I felt like Jesus was never there. And he always would come in a situation whether it be good or bad. Say, Dwight, I would never leave. I don't remember that. Even when you're going through these trials that you're going through, I am here.

But you have to figure out how to get through these. trials and tribunal. I have given you all the two, talent, the mind, everything, but you, it is your choice. It's your will. Billy Graham, he's like a famous preacher. He said something. He said that he was arguing with his mom one time because he said he couldn't feel God. And his mom said oftentimes when we can't feel God, that's when he's the closest to us is because we're running off of pure fate. Believing in that. That marked me. I went through like, a big season of like this recently six months of just like, man, I couldn't feel God. And I was almost deceiving myself a little bit because I was like, oh, dang, well, I guess

if I can't feel God, then that means my fate is trash, basically. But in reality, that wasn't true. It was, I had to constantly remind myself, okay, maybe I can't feel God, but, man, I'm still praying. Or I can't feel God, but man, I'm still picking up my Bible and I'm trying to bear my cross and I'm trying to do these things. And that really encouraged me. who do you feel like when you 18 years old in the NBA access to money access to everything

who came into your life that was a big role model of like hey be smart do this man um was there someone like in the league or someone not associated with the league that was like oh man this is here's some good advice it was so many people um you know try to give me a lot of great advice um when you're 18 and you're the head of a franchise and all these different things that people are saying you are a lot of times people are afraid to tell you anything um especially when you have a source of something that they would like and that's money and so it is it is very difficult in this world to navigate if you are not centered in christ and christ is a mindset it is the highest mindset that someone could have.

Yeah. And when you said about feeling God, you know, sometimes we kind of trick ourselves into thinking that he's not there when he's in us. He can never leave our vessels until we decide to go back home and he quickens our spirit. So he's always there. he's always there is just we have to choose to be in his will or his presence or not to be but he will

never leave us and forsake us how do we know as jesus said it in his in his word he said i must go expedient i will comfort her and who was the comforter the holy spirit he will always be that spirit is inside of all of us. So, you know, we just have to, we have to continue this fight of faith. Yep. And it is a tough faith walk when you say that you are a believer in Christ. For sure. Because the devil is out seeking to destroy our mind.

Yep. And if Jesus, he's asking us to put on this helmet of salvation, and Jesus six, and follow him, then that means we have to put on this mindset, this consciousness in order to navigate through life. And the devil doesn't want that. It's us to have his mindset, this worldly mindset of wanting things to happen right away. and the wrong things to happen right away.

Yep, I agree. There was a proverb that says there's a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death. And I love, and that's just like the story of my life. Anytime Bryce thinks Bryce has got it, it all chaos. Like I said earlier, chaos arises. And I love how you said that. We need the mind of Christ.

Like we've got to change the way we think. Because you're right. We are wicked people at heart. And we got to think like him. Yes. Because if we think like him, then we start living out the will of God. We start walking, walking smooth. And we're listening to the presence and the Holy Spirit and let him guide our steps. I think that's so good, man. But we can't get it unless we're quiet and we're still. We have so many distractions. This is why it's Instagram and social media and the TV and all these things have been created to distract us. Jesus, they called Jesus Jesus of Nazareth. So Nazarene was a place where anyone who wanted to become basically one with themselves,

they had to go to Nazareth. Had to go to this place to basically get away from everyone to hear the voice of God. And this is what Jesus did. It was like, why don't we as Christians, followers of Christ, do exactly what Jesus did. Not saying we got to go to Nazareth, but step away, get alone, be away from the crowd. That's one thing as an NBA player that once I started doing more of it, my life just became a lot more peaceful. getting alone why because that is how you can hear the voice of God

there's no other spirits or energies around you while you're in the presence of God yeah so you know that's one of the things that you know really has helped me out in my journey getting alone how I can hear oh when God says I need to do something yeah okay this is God will not devil It's not my own ego telling me to do this.

And the way you can hear that is you've got to be on. So, you, of course, I remember the first time it happened. People thought I was crazy. I was asking, God, what do you want me to do with my life? What is my purpose? And it was a Friday evening, probably around the time. We had a Bible study at 6th. 7.30. This had to be around

4.35 o'clock. I'm in the house by myself. God, what is it that you do in my life? Like, what's the purpose? Please tell me. I heard a voice calling my name. I just, nobody's in my house. I heard somebody say, Dwight, loud as day like I'm talking to you now. I hear Dwight. I don't know I ain't.

So I hear it again. Dwight as I go to the bathroom. And I'm like, in the bathroom, but I know I just heard something come out of here. Yeah. So I hear, fight, I preach my word. That is your purpose. Cool. So I get to church that now.

And while I'm in church, they take us to our little Bible studies. So we have team ministries, team ministries for the teens. Yep. adults stay in the main church. So I'm in the team ministry and the guy starts praying at the end of the whole session.

He's praying and he says, anybody who right now has a bad stomach, please come forward. Next thing, you know, my stomach is bubbling. Like really bad. I'm like, my stomach ain't hurt this whole time. I was in here. Now my

stomach is bubbling. I feel like I got to go let one out. It's crazy. And so I'm and I'm like, man, I can't go up. I cannot go up. My stomach is hurting so bad. Yeah. So if anybody got any stomach aids right now, come up. Ain't nobody had no stomach in it, but me.

Yeah. How crazy is that? So I get up and I start, he's talking to me. And he says, right? I want to preach his word. After you had just heard it earlier. Yeah. at my house when I'm by myself.

So I'm like, hold up. How would, yeah. Let me make this connection. How would he know something that was told to me verbatim at my house on my own time? Yeah. How would he know this? Yeah.

It had to be something out of me that spoke. So I was like, man, this is serious. So that's when my journey was like, after that, I was like, okay, I know. I got to do. And I knew it was going to be difficult. I first got to the NBA and said I wanted the cross to be on the logo. My target on my back, one, I had a target for being the number one pick. Yeah.

Then from coming from smaller school in Georgia and all that stuff. But then saying that I am a believer in Christ, the target went from like that to my whole, my whole body became a target. It was a target of my own. we're going to try to destroy his testimony. Every chance we get, we're going to try to destroy his testimony. It was like, that's what I've been having to fight. Come on.

And that's a tough fight. That is a tough fight. Man, that's just so encouraging because I feel like I love hearing stuff like that because so many people think, oh, well, if I'm going to be a Christian, then that means I got to, you know, I've got to become a pastor. And I'm like, yeah, we need pastors. But we need people in the NBA. We need people in the business places.

We need that. And we needed you in there. See, that's the thing. People think that if you are a Christian, that you have to only preach and be a pastor in church. But there's more people who have gifts of the spirit. See, God has given all of us different gifts of the spirit. Some to evangelize, some to use for healing,

some to use for professing, some to use for teaching. Some people are supposed to be ministering. Some people are supposed to be pastors, all these different things. A minister does not have to have his ministry in a church. Yep. He can minister anywhere. Why? Because the kingdom of God is within us.

So when I speak, I am speaking who? God. I'm speaking God. So now that means everything I say has to be life or death. Life or death is in the power of the time. tongue. Correct. So everything I say, I want to speak positive. Why? Because I want to speak life into everything. Dang, what was it like for your, man, all I can think about right now is what was it like for the people in the NBA that knew you, right? Let's say the first two years

when you said, okay, I got in fresh, 18 years old, distracted by money, you know, I'm not going to I think that happened anyone. It wasn't distracted by money. It was distracted by any and everything that come with money. And then you go from that, right? You go from that. And everybody, you know, you're right. Everybody's got eyes on you. Your number one pick. You're fresh in. You're fresh meat. You got, you know, whatever. And then you go from that. And then you're walking in this calling. And I know your actions are going to look different now. And you're like, oh, shoot, what did the teammates think? What did the people think around you? Were they encouraged? Were they like, man, Dwight, you're a buzzkill. What did that kind of look like?

I was getting both sides of it. You know what I'm saying? I was getting the size of the side of oh, Dwight, you're doing such an amazing job. But then I'm also getting the side of people seeing me mess up. Like every one of my failures or mistakes or anything that I did in life, it just so-called happened to be put on TV, put on the Internet for everybody to see. So now it's not my mistakes anymore that just for me to deal with. Everybody in the world has to see my mistakes. So it's like, hey, and now they're,

thinking, oh man, Dwight ain't everything he say he is because he did this. And that's how, that's what happened with pastors and preachers. If they mess up or do anything, people are now like, oh, man, he's supposed to be a man of God. He's supposed to be this, that, and the third. How could he do this? And it's like, hey, we are our vessels too. We're trying to become this perfect spiritually mature man. And I understand because of our Bible and the way people have, you know, say, hey, if you are a Christian or if you are a follow of Christ, a man of God, people put these expectations on you.

Yeah. You know what I'm saying? But they're not understanding that you have to go through a period of elimination or a process of elimination to become that person. So you look at Job. People always talk about, and it's only one perfect person and that's Jesus. The Bible says it's different. The Bible says that there was another perfect person.

And Job was a perfect person, but it says Joe was perfect and upright in all his ways, which means he was spiritually mature. Not a perfect man. He didn't see and he didn't do this. so people think perfect mean you're not going to mess up. He was righteous. He was spiritually mature. He had a deeper level of understanding through his experiences.

So from my experiences, the experiences that I've had is giving me a deeper level of understanding. So now when I talk to my children, when I'm talking to my friends, when I'm talking to family, when I'm talking to you or anybody around the world, I can say through my experiences, I've learned so much because experience is the best teacher. If I didn't go through these trials and tribulations, how could I come back and tell you anything? Yeah. The reason why we can look at Jesus is because he went through all temptation. Yeah.

And he did not budge. Yeah. So now he's that example. I've been through so many experiences. My experiences have told me, hey, be right. This ain't good, my boy. I did it. I learned from it.

This money that I got used the money for what it's supposed to be used for. But do not fall in love with it. Because once you do, that's the root of all types of evil. Because it's already there because it comes with money. But now it's going to be with you because you don't fell in love with the thing that you wasn't supposed to love and then you have made that your idol and God says you're not supposed to have what

no other guys before me so since you've made that your idol I'm going to take it away and take that away too and take that away and that's what God does oh that's your idol because God is a jealous God oh

you putting that over me huh all right I'm going to show you so I'd always remember that. Man, I like how you worded that too about like, you know, the mess up. Because the expectations, it's hard. You know, we weren't meant to have access to everyone. Being someone in the spotlight, it's hard having everyone's eyes and opinions on you.

But I think that's a good way to put it. It's not that you're willingly saying, oh, I'm going to go screw off. But it's like, I like that verse in progress where it says, The Righteous Man falls seven times. Sometimes making mistakes is a part of the process. You're not trying to make mistakes, but you're not perfect either. And sometimes you mess up. And, you know, the thing is, Jesus, when he went through his 40 days of temptation, you read

the scriptures after that, it says that after that Satan left for a season. Yeah. It didn't say he left forever. It said he left for a season, and then Jesus was approached by wise counsel. So he left for a season just because he wanted to go and let me go watch Jesus for it see how he act now

let me go watch his movements around these people I'm gonna find a way to get to him and that's what the enemy does because just like he said in Job when God asked him where have you been? He said oh you know

I've been roaming to and fro the earth looking for somebody to devour because this spirit been searching and searching for people to destroy. And so we have to be very cautious of that. And money is a magnet to this spirit. And so that's why, you know, for me, I tell people all the time,

don't be in love with money. Don't love money. Understand it because it's a dollar and a million dollars, it takes the same amount to make it. And we're over here fighting for something that costs the same. Yeah. One dollar and a million dollars or two million dollars or three million dollars. It costs the same to make it.

Yeah. So why are we making that something that should be talked about? We should just be gracious for one thing in that's life because that's the only thing that matters. I had a day, I had an opportunity to spend three days in a cave. no light. What? When? I did this about two years ago now.

Well, you actually did it. Yes, it was three days. Three days, no light at all. I had a bed, I had a bathtub, I had a little area where I could sit. But for three days, pitch black. It was no light.

No light at all. No. What in the world? No light at all. I had to do this for three days. The food that we tasted, the food that, well, I said we like, I was in there with someone. But you can't go in there

with anyone. You're there alone. So, where is it? You food. It's in, near Portland. It's in Oregon. They bring you food at night or you really can't tell when, but they bring the food and it's supposed to last all day. So it's like a silent retreat?

It's silent because you You can't have no phones. You can't have nothing. You're just there. You can't do anything for three days. So I had a chance to really sit with myself, my emotions, my feelings, being able to understand. But also it made me just really be grateful for sight. Grateful for life because if we didn't have these bodies, that's what everything

would look like, pure darkness. And the reason that we can see now is because we're not. we have these vessels. So leaving that experience made me so more great, so much more grateful for the fact that I have been blessed to have a body, blessed to have a vessel so I could see this, this plane of existence. You know, so now I get a chance to experience God, experience consciousness in the flesh.

Yeah. And so I'm just so thankful about that. I feel like I always lose side of like the small things I'm grateful for until I get like a sore throat. Then I'm like, dang, I'm grateful for the days I don't have a sore throat. I'd be grateful for a sore throat. Really? I'd be grateful for everything. It doesn't matter what it is.

I'm grateful that I went through this moment where I stubbed my toe and I hurt my foot. I'm grateful that I had back surgery two times. I'm grateful that I torn my labor. So I'm not just grateful for the good moments. I'm grateful for the bad ones. Yeah. Why? I like that.

If I'm only, if you only love the people that love you, who are you? Yeah. You're supposed to love everyone, even the people that hate you. Yeah. The same thing. So I'm always grateful. It doesn't matter what it is. I had a bad game.

Oh God, thank you for this game. We lost. It wasn't meant for us to win, but I learned so much out of this lesson. We didn't win the championship. I didn't get what I wanted, but I wanted. But looking back on it, this is a lot. experience helped me with so many other things. Yeah. So it's all about how you look at it, how you view it. I like that. So, you know, I don't try to view anything as something. I always keep it positive.

Why? Yeah. That's my blood type. Be positive. So it's nothing like I can't even, I can't even be negative like it's not even in me. You know what I'm saying? I like that. I like that. So I'm always, you know, just this positive person. I like that shift. That was going to be my last question about Jesus with you before I shifted to a couple just regular questions I had for you was like I think in the same way we can we can experience the the top of the mountain with Jesus those high spiritual moments we I think another great way that we can really get close to Jesus is in the suffering yes in those hard times yes what is a peak moment of suffering or trial that you experienced and how did that bring you closer to Jesus

A peak moment of suffering. Well, actually, the moments where I'm not suffering is that brings me closer. Those moments when I do suffer, I just have a realization that I'm going through this suffering because I'm asking for peace. So before you can get peace, you have to go through long suffer. Peace comes from struggle. So, you know, I've had so many situations of struggle that have brought me to peace. Like I said, the back surgery. I had two back surgery.

First time I had it, the doctor told me in Orlando I was going to never play again because it'd be the last time I played basketball. Just to go through that pain and struggle of having the back surgery, crying every day trying to go out and play, that was a struggle. brought me closer and it separated me from everyone else so I was able to hear the voice of God then the second time I had my back surgery I had lost 30 pounds 30 days I remember going up to I was in Washington DC at the time playing for the wizard that year was one of my most painful season and while I was going through this test that year I felt like I didn't hear God because he

putting me to this test to see bear my faith with so I'll go through this whole year of being injured my back was hurt so bad that season I couldn't reach down the top of my shoe like this I couldn't do this I couldn't put on my sock

the way I'm moving now I couldn't do this and I was still playing I couldn't sit down in the chair for more than 15 seconds I had to lay down on the plane They had to bring me a blow up bed To lay down on the plane Because I couldn't sit on the chairs

I had to stand up the whole bus ride To every city that we came into Once we got off the plane I had to stand up From the airport all the way To the hotel I could not stand up I mean sit down at all

It was hurting so bad When I ate food at home I had to lay down and eat food It was crazy I cried almost every day I felt like I wanted to commit suicide. That's how bad my back was hurting. I literally did not want to live anymore because it hurts so bad just to even do anything.

But I was still hooping. I was still playing my butt off. I get out there and play, get 25 points, 15 rebound. And I can't even, only got one leg. So that taught me two things. If your body is hurting like this, sit your butt down. You ain't got nothing to prove to nobody. That was ego.

My ego is saying, no, I got to prove to everyone. I got to do this. Why? Why? No. What did you need to do? Sit down. Get yourself healthy.

Why? Because I had something for you in LA. The next season. Got a championship. That's what ended up happening. My faith started out in Washington. My back surgery came back in four months. I was supposed to be out for a whole year.

Came back in four months. I lost 30 pounds and 30 days. I told the owner from Washington Wizards before he traded me, I said, listen, come back, fully healed. I won 30 pounds and 30 days, and we're going to win a championship. he must have then believe it or see it like I did. But he traded me. When they traded me, I was hurt.

Very hurt. He sent me to Memphis Grizzlies. Memphis Grizzlies called. They told me that they didn't have no room for me on the roster. So I'm like, dang, no room on a roster, you guys just traded to get me in the scene. This suck. What did I do, God? Okay, am I going to blame you?

I'm going to look in the mirror. What do I need to do? So that's what I did. Went home, got into the gym. 30 days, lost a weight. Right after that, Lakers want to meet with me. I fly to L.A., go on the court.

My mindset was totally different. Why? Because I had got away from everything. now God had to sit me down something had to happen in the spirit then to my body for me to gain and understanding see everything that happens in the spirit

the flesh happens in spirit first so that spirit what was happened to my spirit was injured I was hurt I was stressed I was going through all these things and it started to affect my body and now I wanted to affect my body that's when I ended up getting hurt

Yeah. Now I'm hurt. Can't do anything but sit down. Yeah. And now during that process is when God was able to, hey son, I'm always here. You're going to come back, but you've got to believe it. Yeah.

That's what I did. I came back that year. We won the championship for the LAPA. Come on. Greatest season. Greatest season ever. And that was the year we had the bubble. So much stuff going on.

That was intense. It was very intense. me. Praise God. So I'm so grateful. That's for that. Paul writes in Corinthians. He talks about a thorn in his side. This is what makes me think of.

And he's like, kind of annoyed at first. He's like, this sucks. And then he says, but I like it because it keeps me humble and reliant on God. And I'm just encouraged by that in your story. I hear both sides of it. It's like, okay, like, you know, these people say they don't want me in the natural. So you're like, there's two things that I can do. I got lock in with God.

And then I also got to put in the work as well. Because I believe that is true. Proverbs talks about it. There's times where you got to get right with God and you got to also put in the work. All the time. You got to. All the time. I'm encouraged by that.

I got a couple questions that aren't spiritual. They're just side questions. First one is, dude, I think one of the funniest things that ever happened was the Taiwan meme. You were doing on Twitter. Oh, come on. When someone would do bad, you would add them on Twitter and then tell them to come play in Taiwan. I thought that was the funniest thing ever. People are crazy.

Like, I literally, like, I was, so when we played in, when I played in Taiwan, they gave me this, like, big van to travel with, so I wouldn't have a regular car or whatever. They gave me this big van. And they had decked a van out. It had, like, clouds. like music everywhere. I'm like, oh, this is crazy. Like, I can just chill and go to the games. So I actually got on live during the playoffs

where the people tried to make the playoffs. And teams were just going. They wasn't playing good at all. Everybody was just going. They was not doing anything. So my cousin, who was in the car with me, he just kept naming players who was just sucking. They wasn't doing nothing.

So I just kept saying, hey, come on. You got to, hey, you come on to it. You ain't playing good. Come on. They can ride in the cloud car. Yeah, you can ride in the cloud car, get your mind right, because whatever you was doing in the league was not working, I need you to come on.

But, man, we had so much fun with it. Every state that I went to after that, every country that I went to, people would just be coming under me and they'll be like, come on. So we started to make that a thing, you know. That was so funny. I thought it was hilarious. That's great. I had to bring that up because I thought it was so funny.

What? So I want to ask you this. You got to be around Kobe for a little bit. And I think that's super encouraging. Did you ever learn something specific about it? What was that experience like being around Kobe? And how did that affect you just as a human being? The one thing that, you know, I really, you know, people talk about this, the Kobe, the Mamba

mentality. And for being around him, being around a lot of basketball, you know, everybody has their way of expressing their art. And in Kobe's version, he called it the Mamba mentality, this snake mentality. Yeah. This fierce competitor that once it strikes, it's deadly. And so every player has a mentality that they play with. And the reason why Kobe was at the top because his mentality was different.

Yeah. And so his work ethic was different. What I would say was also different was his faith and his focus. See, talk about limiting distraction. it wasn't a distraction for him. That was his mentality. It's focus.

Singular focus was on one goal winning. So nothing else mattered. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Everybody don't have that same attitude. Yeah. Or they don't have that same, they don't call it the same thing.

Everybody's trying to reach this one same goal. Yeah. His mentality, his focus led him. in a different way. That's encouraging. I feel like it's such a good teammate or role model to have it, at least be around in a circle.

It matters to you surround yourself with. So I was just curious. It does because when you, just like they say, one bad apple can spoil a bunch, right? So if you have a team and you have somebody on the team who's going to everybody speaking negatively,

all those different things, that apple is going to in turn spoil the bunch because all it takes is one. So now when you have this positive attitude and this positive attitude connects with every person. Every person can get along with it. Now because they all have this same attitude,

they could reach new heights. Who told us that first? Jesus. He said, whenever two or more gathered in my name, there I am in the mist. See, I took that a different way. When I first heard that, I thought if I passed gas in church and if four people was around,

then Jesus was going to be there because he said, we're two or more agree. There I am in the midst. So if I pass gas, I thought he was going to be in the midst of my gas. That's a why. So I was like, okay, I got to pass gas in church. So when I did pass gas in church, they had to evacuate the whole,

church. Yo. The only person could stay in there was the pastor and me through the grace of God. See, me and him was able to withstand. The stench. The stench. The stench. And Jesus was in the mist.

Yo, that's why. That's so wild. That's crazy. But, you know, seriously, I know that was a little jokey joke. There's a little jokey joke about Jesus being in the midst of my gas. Okay, don't take it. I don't want people going home and saying, why would I say that about Jesus?

What's what you thought for? You thought about it for a little bit. I did. Jesus had jokes. God had jokes. I used to say that when I used to do when I was younger or I dove deeper into reading in the word. There were scriptures in the Bible

where I felt like God was trying to tell jokes. Who's your favorite team you've played for? Favorite team? Magic? Got to be. Gotta be. I mean, that was a given, but like, more than just the pick. Come on. Why do you love the magic? It started there. Everything started there.

Like, my first eight years in my career, the duck contest, Superman. Yeah, that was legendary. Yeah, it started in Orlando. Obviously, I've had fun on all the teams I've been on, but Orlando is just special. The times that we've had going to the finals. which is very difficult to do with any sport, but to go there and have a city behind you. I just remember being at the airport,

pulling back up to the runway, and all the fans there clapping for us and, you know, help supporting us through the series and got their flags. You could just feel the energy. So when I got out there on the court, it was like, Landau, this is really for y'all.

Like, I'm playing, because I want y'all to win so bad. Like, this is why I'm doing this. I like that. So, yeah, yeah. You're Orlando Magic Legend. Oh, yeah. I love it.

I love, like, dude, I love your basement. I like looking at all the stuff. Like, that slam poster back there is nuts, dude. That one back there is nuts. Oh, yeah, that was actually, that one had to be my first or second year to leave. Yeah, that one's fire. Wow. Yeah, what's that shoe you were?

17. What? You got to get those custom made? Actually, these, it's not a 17 right here. These are 12. But these shoes right here are one of my first shoes. My first signature shoe with Adidas, I had eight pair of shoes. This is one of my first pairs.

Nuts. So, you know, I always got to give a shout out to Adidas. Come on. For giving me a shoe, man. I remember being in high school playing NBA live. See, everybody played 2K now. But back then we had NBA live. That's a throwback.

That's a throwback. So I wanted to be on the cover of NBA live. I just remember sitting at home. It's saying, man, it'd be crazy. If I was in the NBA, it'd be crazy if I had my own shoe. Like, God, what if I had my own shoe? And God said, Dwight, if you are faithful over the little things that you have, I would bless you with so much more.

So I end up having two shoes in school, two pairs of pro wing. a white and blue pair and an all black pair. I wore those two pairs of shoes until they had holes in the bottom of them. Come on. And because of my faithfulness, because I was able to be patient, again, is what patience comes in

and suffer long. God bless me to now where I have so many shoes that I don't know what to do with. I've had my own pair of shoes. Yeah. So, you know, that's why it's like being faithful, being committed, seeing the goal all the way through to the end, no matter how difficult it may get. You know, you're faithful over the small things.

God is going to bless you because he knows that you have the capacity to hold it. Yeah. No, but if he knows he's going to give it to you and you're just going to use it, then why? Yeah. Why don't I get this to you? Right. You're going to use it. Yeah, for sure.

It's stupid. But, oh, okay. You didn't have two pairs of shoes for four years. You put holes in the bottom of it. You wore them things every day. You had one pair you wore for school, the other pair you did for basketball. You didn't change up on me. Okay, Dwight, I got something for you.

Go down door number one over there. That's Adidas contract. Yeah, you get your own shirt. Yeah, shout out of Adidas. For betting on Dwighton. Shout out to Dwight. Shout out for the magic and Adidas. Amen.

Yeah. 18 year old, ain't even have a fresh hair cut, a mustache yet. Yeah, man, thank you for taking a chance, man. That's all like, God has taken a chance on every single one of us by saying, I'm going to drop you on earth. I'm going to take a chance on you. You was my number one pick. All of us was God's number one pick.

And now we just got to remember while we're here that he chose us. It's so hard to forget because we got soul distractions. We got money. We got all these illusions. These things that we think are real. But it's really not. It's just to distract us from our true purpose. So hopefully through our prayers and through people waking up

and seeing our interview, our podcast today, that we start to really get alone. so they could hear the small steel sweeper to go. What was your favorite thing? Last question. What was your favorite collaboration outside of the NBA? Like was it like a TV show, movie appearance? Was it?

I mean, I see the belt. Oh, my God. I see the belt. So this was one belt. I actually got another belt somewhere. My kids probably took it, but I had a spinning belt from John Cena. There, go up there. I was big in the wrestling.

When I got done playing, I wanted to be a wrestler. I actually did all that crazy stuff. But I was like, wrestling is pretty difficult, man. Yeah. They travel more than NBA players. They're on the road almost 350 days of the year. Dang. Yeah, that's a lot.

That is a lot. I'm like, I don't put my knees to a lot of work already jumping and stuff. I'm not about to be picking up no 300-pound dudes. Suplexing on a Monday Night Row. And screaming. Yeah. Like, I could do all that stuff. I could talk trash.

They need to bring me in to do one of that. Yeah, listen up here, brother, next time you want to come to a place, and you want to try me, I'm going to take you, I'm going to pull your ear out, and I'm going to take your throat, take your Adam's apple out, duh, throw it on the ground, then I'm going to step on it. I like that. Yeah. I like that.

See, yeah, that's nice. I can do all that, but then once all the other stuff come in, then I'm going to get tired, then I'm going to have to do this for all. Everybody's going to want me to keep doing that. Yeah? No. You got like a few in you, you know. I got a few good ones in me.

And you just wasted one. Well, that was not a waste. That was nice. I like that. That was a good clip farm. That was great. That was a good clip farm. We needed that.

Clip farming. We needed that. It's crazy. It's so crazy. All these crazy words now, like I just heard of clip farming. Then I heard of this one. This one is even crazier. ORA farming or forming whatever it is.

You got aura, though. ORA, but it's like everybody in the world got aura. Orra is just your. energy. It's just your spirit. Yeah, but like, but you know what I mean? It's like, it's like that, it's like that, it's like that. It's like that. It's like that. It's like that. It's like, it's like, it's, but we decided to give it away. And I'm a person that's like, no, I'm, this is me. I'm going to be like the highest vibration on earth is authenticity. So if you being your true and authentic self, your aura is going to shine so right. Yeah, the aura. That's why you got aura.

All of us got aura because God says, this dog's, got aura. Sunday does have aura. This dog has aura. And she'll want to do nothing, but staying here and look at me. And I love her Sunday. You know, we're talking about you, right. Yeah, I know you know we're talking about you. She's so pretty. She got aura. She does. All of us have it. That's why I speak so much on greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. Um, because that or that's in you, that energy that's in you. That holy spirit is glowing. Let it, let it radiate. Like the Bible says, don't let nobody put out your candle. We all are the light of the world.

So I'm just making sure my light shines. I don't want nobody to try to dim my light. Come on. We all have that same light. So, you know, don't be afraid to let your light shine. The devil doesn't want it to shine. He wants his light to shine. Just think about it.

Come on. Like, the devil want his light to shine. Why? Why are we got to let him win? Yeah. But if we all shine our lights together, which is knowledge you know that the devil

ain't real we could speak him out of existence he's a doo-to butt he is a do-to-but he's the devil you're a duke butt yeah

and we're gonna do-do all over you without our prayers yeah that's right Satan's stupid yeah that's right you stupid sack of we're not gonna say

that word on camera yo bro I appreciate you so much you're the man thank you for letting us coming to your house. Thanks for coming on. Guys, thanks for watching to listen to the episode, Dwight. You're the man. I appreciate you. This is like legendary interview.

I'm just thinking back right now to like third grade me having you on my door and now we're getting to sit down and chat together. So thank you so much. I appreciate you guys. Thanks for watching. We'll see you guys next week for the episode. Love you guys and see you guys later.