PROLOGUE PROLOGUE On February 17, 2007, four talented players in the National Basketball Association (NBA) competed in the Slam Dunk contest. The players were defending champion Nate Robinson of the New York Knicks, Tyrus Thomas of the Chicago Bulls, Gerald Green of the Boston Celtics, and Dwight Howard of the Orlando Magic.
Of the participants, Howard was by far the biggest, standing at nearly seven feet tall and weighing in at 265 pounds. His size was no guarantee that he’d fly head and shoulders over the competition, but he wasn’t nervous. “I have some tricks up my sleeve,” he told reporters, a mischievous gleam in his eye.
Thomas opened the contest with a between-the-legs bounce pass that he caught off the glass and slammed through the hoop. The panel of five judges awarded him 37 out of a possible 50 points for the dunk.
Green, up next, enlisted the help of fellow Celtics player Paul Pierce. Pierce laid the ball up against the backboard. Green leaped, caught the rebound, and then circled the ball before jamming it home. That dunk earned him 48 points.
Now it was Howard’s turn. He dribbled twice from the sideline near the three-point arc and then launched himself into the air for a one-handed windmill throw-down. The crowd roared with approval; the judges gave him 43 points.
Robinson finished the first round with a leg-twisting leap so high in the air that it looked as if he had launched himself off a trampoline. The move propelled him into second place, with 45 points.
Thomas, as the last-place holder, went first in the next round. He made a strong attempt—so strong, in fact, that he tore the net! But he was only awarded 43 points, giving him a total of 80 out of 100 points. Because only the top two point holders would advance to the final round, Thomas’s chances to continue didn’t look good.
Dwight Howard was up next. He jogged in from center court, took a lob pass from teammate Jameer Nelson, and with a mighty leap thrust the ball through the rim with his right hand. At the same time, he slapped his left hand against the backboard.
With that slap, he left behind a small sticker with a photo of his smiling face, his initials, his jersey number, and the Magic’s team logo. The sticker marked the exact spot his hand had hit—an unbelievable twelve and a half feet above the floor!
But showing how high he could leap was just one reason Dwight Howard had left the sticker on the backboard. A closer examination of the sticker showed a handwritten phrase: “All things through Christ.” By displaying his photo with that phrase, he was telling the world that he is a devout Christian. The phrase expresses his belief that everything he has accomplished and hopes to achieve is done thanks to the strength he receives from God.
Dwight is just one of many outspoken Christian athletes. Fellow basketball players Allan Houston and David Robinson, quarterback Kurt Warner, pitcher Orel Hershiser, and tennis player Michael Chang have all publicly embraced their religion.
The sticker also reveals another part of Dwight Howard. The smile that he wears in the photograph is full of fun, mischief, and optimism. That, according to his friends, family, and teammates, is Howard’s personality in a nutshell. He’s known for his goofy sense of humor and has no qualms in showing it on and off the court.
“Basketball brings me a lot of joy,” he once told reporters. “Just knowing that I’m alive, and I have a reason to be here, brings me joy. Basketball is one place where I know I can be myself.”