Dwight Howard has the most dunks in the league’s history. 324 more than famous archenemy Shaquille O’Neal. In fact, DH12 alongside his proud record of (2,950), also has a Slam Dunk Champion record to his name. Interestingly, in 2008, he won the title but only to lose it the next year. On top of that, he helped his opponent secure the win via fan votes. And the 2009 champion recalled despite winning, he had to face some difficulties.

“Stolen out my room bro. I couldn’t believe it and Nike thought I was playing.” Nate Robinson spoke about his special Nike ‘Kryptonite‘ shoes which were stolen and the company took major steps to track the shoes. “They went through a whole thing like they shut the hotel down, they closed the hotel. They couldn’t find them and then somebody was on eBay and they found them on eBay. Somebody was on internet selling them that fast.” The podcast hosts confirmed if Nike paid to get those sneakers back.

The 3x Slam Dunk Champion confirmed the amount”$25,000 to get those shoes.” For the final round, Robinson changed his look to a green Knicks jersey and paired it with ‘Kryptonite‘. Since he was facing Dwight Howard in the final round, the storyline made complete sense as ‘Superman vs Krypto-Nate‘. Plus, the 3x DPOY was a prop, as Robinson went over him to complete the dunk.

Despite being 5-ft-9, the former Knicks star was successful dunking over 6-ft-11 DH12. The video uploaded on the NBA’s YouTube channel has over 2.3 million views. And on the night fans voted 52% in favor of Robinson over Dwight Howard. But did the former champion agree instantly, or did he have certain preconceived notions?

Dwight Howard was ready to face the battle

On the same Got Sole podcast, Nate Robinson agreed he was a “little nervous.” But not because of dunking over a close-to-7-foot player but because of the crowd in attendance. And there was also another question in his mind: “The question was Dwight gonna let me, so that was the biggest thing. I got the perfect dunk, but if he doesn’t agree, I don’t know what I’m gonna do.”

During the event day, Robinson approached the former champion before the media interview. “It was me and him in there warming up and I was like ‘Bro, let me jump over you’. He was like ‘Can you?‘” The 40-year-old continued, “I was like ‘Yes bro, just watch this’, so I told him to turn around and I just ran and jumped over him and landed. I didn’t even dunk. I just jumped over cleared him.”

Right there in practice, Dwight Howard knew it was a viral moment. “He was like bro, this dunk is going to go down to history. ‘Yo I’ll do it.'” And now we know how it turned out, the ‘Superman‘ was more than willing to help Nate Robinson, not only to create the historic moment, but to win as well. The whole ordeal of shoes getting stolen perfectly adds to the famous lore.