“Stay off the weeeed!!” Stephen A. Smith SCREAMS at Dwight Howard nullifying Nikola Jokic’s prime compared to himself

Howard recently claimed that his own prime version is better than Nikola Jokic's.

“Stay off the weeeed!!” Stephen A. Smith SCREAMS at Dwight Howard nullifying Nikola Jokic’s prime compared to himself

From left: Dwight Howard, Stephen A. Smith and Nikola Jokic (Images via Getty)

Dwight Howard has always been a very vocal guy and has not been afraid to voice his opinion on various topics. Now on the Taoyuan Leopards, Howard recently spoke with Zion Olojede of Complex Sports and the two discussed multiple things, one in particular about the comparison between Howard and 2023 Finals MVP Nikola Jokic. Howard said that he would take himself over Jokic owing to his prowess on the defensive end of the floor, his speed and power, and scoring more twos than threes.

As any NBA fan would expect, one man who was not impressed with Howard’s assessment was Stephen A. Smith. “Stay off the weed! ..To say that you couldn’t shine Jokic’s shoes as an offensive player would be an insult to Jokic. It’s worse than that. You weren’t in his class, you had no post game, you had a jump hook, you were very limited, you couldn’t shoot the basketball… it’s not Jokic’s fault you didn’t score on threes, you couldn’t,” said Smith on the recent episode of ESPN’s First Take.

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He then went on to compare the two statistically, clearly indicating that Jokic stood out in nearly every department and that Howard should be “drug tested” for even thinking that he was better than ‘The Joker’.

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Howard, to his credit, backed up his claim with a lot of facts and figures himself and in one way put any kind of dirt on Jokic’s name. “I love Jokic and I’m happy for him. I think he’s one of the best centers that ever played the game on basketball, but I’m not going to throw dirt on my own name. I’m Dwight Howard. I know what I’ve done in this league.”

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Howard spoke about shutting down Jokic in May earlier this year

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Howard got the better of Jokic in their playoff matchup in the Bubble in 2020 (Image via Getty Images)

This is not the first time that Howard has spoken about Jokic. Back in May this year, Howard said in an interview that he would dominate Jokic in a match-up between the two. Prime Howard vs Prime Jokic would indeed be a mouth-watering matchup and the result could go either way. Both big men are dominant in their own ways and it would have been super interesting to have seen them go against one another if they played in the same era.

But fans can’t complain, as they have been treated to some amazing performances by another incredible center in Philadelphia 76ers All-Star Joel Embiid. While Jokic won the MVP award in 2021 and 2022, Embiid won it in 2023. Matchups between the two modern-day greats have been must-watch TV with both of them getting the better of each other on different occasions.

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