ORLANDO, Fla. — A well-known former Orlando Magic star is among the group of celebrities competing on the new season of ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars.”
The show is known for recruiting former and current professional athletes to compete with other celebrities on the dance floor. Among those with ties to the Sunshine State are former Apopka High School and Tampa Bay Bucs standout Warren Sapp, former Dr. Phillips High School and Major League Baseball star Johnny Damon, former Florida Gators running back Emmitt Smith and former Miami Dolphins defensive end and linebacker Jason Taylor.
You can now add the first former Orlando Magic player to appear on the show: Dwight Howard.
“Dwight David Howard II is one of the NBA’s most charismatic veterans,” ABC said in its press release announcing the show’s Season 33 casting. “Playing professional basketball for 19 years as one of the NBA’s greatest players, he has had a global impact on the lives of people around the world.”
“He is an NBA champion, an eight-time All-Star, an eight-time All-NBA team member, a five-time All-Defensive Team member and a three-time Defensive Player of the Year. He holds the record for most dunks in NBA history and is the only player in NBA history to win Defensive Player of the Year honors in three consecutive seasons.”
The Magic used the first overall pick in the 2004 NBA draft to take Howard straight out of high school. The 2.08-meter center helped revive an Orlando team still reeling from the loss of Shaquille O’Neal. In the 2008-09 season, he led the Magic to the NBA Finals for the first time in 14 years, but Orlando lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in five games.
Like O’Neal, Howard eventually left the Magic to join the Lakers. After a few rough seasons, he requested a trade and the Magic traded him to Los Angeles on August 10, 2012.
After leaving the Magic, Howard played in the NBA, with stints in Houston, Atlanta, Charlotte, Washington and Philadelphia, before finally winning an NBA title in 2020 during the second of his three stints with the Lakers.
Since leaving the NBA, he has played basketball in Taiwan and was a member of the Taoyuan Leopards and Taiwan Mustangs.
Other athletes Howard will compete against on “Dancing with the Stars” include Super Bowl champion and former NFL wide receiver Danny Amendola, U.S. Olympic gymnastics medalist Stephen Nedoroscik (who rose to fame as the “pommel horse man” in Paris) and Olympic women’s rugby player Ilona Maher.
The new season of “Dancing with the Stars” premieres at 8 p.m. ET on September 17 on ABC.