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NBA ALL-STAR 2020

February 15, 2020

Dwight Howard

Chicago, Illinois

Q. What's it like to be back on the stage?
DWIGHT HOWARD: Oh, this is amazing. I'm just so grateful to be here, just in this moment. Wasn't expecting all this. So this is an amazing time. It's such a blessing to be back in All-Star Weekend. I'm looking forward to tonight.

Q. Rehab and all that last year. How do you feel about just one more time?
DWIGHT HOWARD: Well, last year when I was going through my injuries and stuff like that, I just kept telling myself that I'm not going to give up. I'm going to keep pushing, and I think the next year is going to be one of my best years of my life and my career. So I just kept telling myself to be prepared for anything. Just go out every day, push myself to the limit and good things will happen.

Q. Can you talk about how smart you are now compared to before?
DWIGHT HOWARD: How smart I am?

Q. What have you learned about the NBA scene?
DWIGHT HOWARD: Was I dumb? (Laughter).

Q. But what have you learned as a basketball player to keep going?
DWIGHT HOWARD: Man, you can never stop believing in yourself. There are a lot of people who are always going to tell you that you can't do something. You've just got to keep believing. It starts with yourself. Coming up into the season I was thinking, I've got to continue to believe. I know a lot of people are counting me out, but I can't allow any outside noise to affect who I am as a person and as a player.

Even with people, I feel like there were times where, because of everything that was going on, I wanted to shy away from people. I was like, No, I can't do that. That's not who I am. I've never been that way. So let me embrace the moment, embrace people and just enjoy this. This is once in a lifetime.

Q. I'm curious, since you last won the Dunk Contest, there's been this trend of (inaudible). I'm curious what you think of that trend?
DWIGHT HOWARD: I think that during All-Star Weekend a lot of guys want to be ready for the second half of the season, so it's pretty hard to get those guys for the Dunk Contest. But this is an event I enjoy. I enjoy dunking. I've been dunking my whole life basically. Last summer I had a chance to have a Dunk Contest with an actual street dunker on Venice Beach, and after we finished dunking, I was like, Man, that felt really good to really get the crowd into it and just enjoy dunking a basketball again. I was super surprised that I was able to get up and dunk like that.

So I said, from that moment on, I'm going to try to get myself ready for the Dunk Contest. And here we are here today. This is great.

Q. On his favorite Kobe Bryant All-Star memory:
DWIGHT HOWARD: My favorite? Well, just actually being on the team with him [in the 2013 NBA All-Star Game]. After the season that we were having, it seemed like at the time we couldn't get things going. Then for us to come out to All-Star Weekend and play on the same team, I thought that that was amazing. We spent a lot of time together on the plane and all the way up until we got to the game. So it was great just to spend some time with him away from basketball to get to know who he is as a person. I thought that that was great. I always have those memories in my head and in my heart.

Not the basketball memories, but just the off-the-court stuff that me and Kobe shared.

Q. On his approach this season:
DWIGHT HOWARD: I think it was more so I decided coming in this year that I wasn't going to allow anything to steal my joy no matter what goes on. Have a smile on my face and enjoy the moment. I think life is just too short to think about the past and I just wanted to get away from that.

Q. What is the difference with this season?
DWIGHT HOWARD: I think it's just a different time and age. The first time I came [to the Lakers], the expectations were a little bit different. I think that the biggest issue at the time for all of us is that we weren't in the right place mentally to be a championship-caliber team. But I think the guys that we have now, there are no egos. It's all about winning and representing the Lakers the right way. I'm just very thankful and grateful to be a part of the team.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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