dwight howard is the man!!!
(from the depths of sin city does rise a new hero)
((ok, that's a little dramatic))


i know i am going to be jumping on the bandwagon here, but i can't help it. i have intentionally started my internet morning here to stay free from all the discourse and analysis and opinion on what had to be (HAD TO BE!!!) the coolest christian moment of 2007 so far. let me set it up...

(to my in-tune-with-sports subscribers, pardon me if some of this is retread.) dwight howard is one of my favorite players in the nba. he's a 7 foot man-child all-star center for the orlando magic. he's making the orlando magic matter again for the first time since shaq left town. he's a freaking beast. his body (also pardon the man love) is something to behold. there are two kinds of seven footers. one is the skinny, kevin garnett type that can play outside of the paint. the other is the yao ming type. the big, hulking space eater that spends most of their time in the paint or shooting short little ten-footers to extend the defense. dwight howard is different. he is a new breed. his physique his cut from stone. he is huge. i mean...huge. but he is lean at the same time. athletic. can run the floor. can shoot the j. can jump out of the gym. total package. one of the handful of guys in the nba that i'd pay just to see him in person. well, back to the story, dwight howard accepts an invite to participate in the dunk contest last night. immediately, he is at a disadvantage, because big men do not win this contest. for some reason, if you are tall, it is assumed you can dunk hard, so the judges seem to hold that against guys. isn't fair. just fact. dwight's going to change all that. he asks the commissioner of the league to raise the rim to 12 feet. 12 feet!!! he is denied. "would take too much time." sorry, can't do it. so, dwight has to be even more innovative. and he freaking comes through. to illustrate everything in his arsenal (height, reach, leap, athleticism), dwight pulls out the coolest dunk i've ever seen. he has a teammate toss the ball over the rim and dwight goes and gets it. he slaps the backboard with his left hand and throws the dunk down with his right. impressive at first. even moreso after a second look. in his left hand, howard was holding a sticker of himself. he had pasted it on the top of the backboard 12 feet, six inches above the earth. no. freaking. way. dude.

the dunk is lost on the judges. they are thinking to themselves, "good job, tall guy. way to touch the backboard. i guess we are to understand that you are tall. awesome. here's 42 points and a box of pop tarts as your going away prize. thanks, but no thanks." but they don't get it. the judges don't have replay (a huge flaw in the scoring system if you ask me). they just have to go on what they saw live. before their eyes. and they weren't impressed.

what their eyes didn't catch was the sticker, pasted on the backboard, with howard's picture and something scribbled in marker. the something scribbled? "all things through christ." "phil 4:13" how awesome is that? subtle, yet profound. an image that i will absolutely never forget. i can hope and pray that countless others fans of the nba and dwight howard also see the message and understand how effective this understated illustration of faith could be. it's too easy to be swallowed up by folks that are so aggressive in showing and sharing their faith that they might turn newcomers away. or oldcomers for that matter. it's too easy to read between the lines of a sunday morning sermon and see that the agenda is more personal politics than god. it's too easy to let the big "personalities" of faith convince you that if this guy is a leader of this "club", then i don't really want to join. and then there are moments like last night. small, almost silent moments when a very young man with a lot of power and money and influence gives credit where his faith leads him to understand the credit is due.

should dwight howard have won the dunk contest because of his "sticker dunk". no, but he should've at least advanced to the finals. might his sticker make more of an impact in the long run than any one public act a dunk champion of the last ten years has made? my guess is yes.

for me, a 30 year-old kid that knows he is about to go to a church service that will likely leave me wanting more, a 30 year-old that struggles every day to find answers to questions that are likely never to come, a 30 year old that feels, most of the time, that true christianity is borderline irrelevant, i can't thank dwight howard enough.

thanks for the moment of light, dwight. i needed it.

"phil 4:13".