Dwight Howard surprises his fans almost every day on Dancing With the Stars. Several NBA stars have tried their luck on the show, and the latest to join the roster is D-12. Despite all the challenges, he has been putting up a great dance battle. But who knew that this wasn’t a sudden decision? He had been trying to join the show for quite a while. Now, Howard has found a new hope as he works with his dance partner, Danielle Karagach, to compete against other celebrity stars.

This journey has been truly transformative for Howard. Speaking further on his participation, he shared, “Well I’ve been trying to do it for three years. This year I had an opportunity to actually. I didn’t have basketball going on and I had an opportunity. I hit up Deena Katz, who’s the talent coordinator for the show. I hit her up, she said she’s gonna try to do her best to get me on the season and I’m glad she did, man. It’s the best decision I made to come on the show.”

Apparently, the basketball star has been wanting to show his move for the past three years. However, his former commitments kept him. Clearly, now as he plays for the Taoyuan Leopards, he saw his chance to enter the entertainment industry with a bang during the off-season. And there’s more than just fun and name as a DWTS participant if Howard is to be believed.

“It’s really helped me with so many things and not just my weight, not just being in shape, my mental you know, having a partner in the dance floor is similar to how you got to have a partner in real life you know how you gotta move through life so it’s really helping me in a lot of areas,” Howard said.

However, the 8x NBA All-Star also finds the dancing schedule a tad bit difficult. “It’s fun it’s difficult ’cause we’re really did 8 hours a day like how could you dance that much it ain’t that much music…And it’s really got me in shape like I’m in basketball shape and I haven’t run no sprints, I haven’t done no, well I’ve been doing a lot of jumping, she had me jump over her almost every day just to get my legs and everything moving so it’s pretty good,” Howard said on Nightcap.

He eventually got on the show and was paired with none other than Karagach, who won season 30 of the show with former NBA star Iman Shumpert. However, along with the learning and fun, he also feels some pressure to win.

How well did Dwight Howard do in DWTS?

There have also been demands for Howard to join the Los Angeles Lakers. However, he is not yet done showing his best in the DWTS. After NBA player Iman Shumpert’s win, fans might be wondering if Dwight Howard can beat his competitors to win the show. In his debut, he was fantastic, showcasing his smooth moves while performing salsa to Montell Jordan’s hit ‘This Is How We Do It.’ 

The duo earned 22 points from the judges, which was the second-best score of the night, behind Chandler Kinney and Brandon Armstrong. Having worked with an NBA player before, Karagach knows exactly how to leverage her dance partner’s tall stature for impressive, jaw-dropping lifts. But the grass was not all green for her either.

She explained how she had to make major changes in choreography to adjust to Howard’s height. “Iman (Shumpert) was probably the tallest guy I’ve ever danced with but he’s the tallest guy I think I spent so much time with and then when I saw Dwight, I was like ‘Oh my God, he’s so much taller!’ and it was just a shock. I think like, my jaw literally fell to the floor.”

Shumpert stands at 6-ft-5, a challenge for many NBA stars indeed. However, Howard is 6-ft-10 which only adds more problems to the 5-ft-7 Daniella Karagach. Which meant, the occasion called for some adjustments. And she did just that.

“Huge adjustment because it was just like right away the amount of thoughts that went through my head, ‘Okay, what am I gonna do with this like giant? like I’m going to have to make this work all season, revealed Karagach on the ‘Lightweights Podcast with Joe Vulpis’. And all that hasn’t been in vain.

Then came their best performance. They made huge strides in Week 5, with Howard and Karagach earning 29 points. Despite some criticism, they are going strong. Whether he wins or not, this experience is likely to be one of his best decisions, like it already is.