![\"\"](\"http:\/\/theasiantimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/howard-india.jpg\" "\\"howard")
<\/a>How were you approached by the NBA regarding this ambassadorship trip to India?<\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cMy assistant asked if I wanted to go to India. I was like \u2018yea, of course.\u2019 I always wanted to go. So I\u2019m here.\u201d<\/p>\n
In your opinion, how well received is the NBA in that country right now?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s crazy. I\u2019m surprised by the big fanbase we have here. I just got out to the lobby and there are a lot of fans around and a lot of people waiting to take pictures. It\u2019s great here.\u201d<\/p>\n Is that crazy to go somewhere so far away from the United States and people still recognize you?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cIt is. It\u2019s very crazy. It\u2019s something that basketball players wish could happen one day, to go across the globe and people all the way across the world recognize you. It\u2019s a blessing and an honor to be here. It\u2019s an honor to be one of the guys that\u2019s recognized.\u201d<\/p>\n Is the NBA fanbase there larger or less than you expected?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t know what to expect to be honest with you. I\u2019ve been to China a bunch of times and every time I went there I kind of knew what it was going to be like. I didn\u2019t know what it was going to be like here. I was just shocked to see how everything has been going so far.\u201d<\/p>\n What was it like training with India\u2019s Senior Men\u2019s National Team?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cOh, man. It was great. Just teaching those guys and trying to help them so they\u2019ll continue to grow as good players. It was a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n You also had the opportunity to show off your coaching skills with a clinic there. Do you think you\u2019ll be bringing any tips back for Coach Van Gundy?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll let coach do his job, but I feel I do a pretty good job training kids and working out guys and trying to motive them so that they can play better. It\u2019s a good opportunity for me.\u201d<\/p>\n What type of questions are they asking you as a coach?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThey were asking basic questions: How to position themselves on defense to get rebounds and how to guard bigger guys. They were all really very good questions that at first I didn\u2019t know if they were going to ask. They just asked a lot of really good questions, including how to block a shot and get around bigger opponents.\u201d<\/p>\n You arrived in India from China. That was a country in the last decade that has had a boom in NBA fans. Do you see that as a possible scenario in India?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI do. That\u2019s the goal here is to do that. We understand it\u2019s going to take a lot of time. It\u2019s barely the number-four sport here right now. This is a long-term goal by the NBA, and I\u2019m just happy to be a part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n Cricket is the number-one sport in India. Have you been able to try your skills at it while there?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cNo, I haven\u2019t gotten the chance to play. I would actually try to play it though. It seems like a very cool sport.\u201d<\/p>\n the asian times<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Posted: Thursday, August 12, 2010 NBA.com India Spread the word. That\u2019s the mission Dwight Howard is on right now. He just happens to be doing it nearly 8,000 miles away from his home in Orlando, Fla. The four-time NBA All-Star is on a five-day ambassadorship visit to India, helping promote the NBA and even offer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":261,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/theasiantimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/theasiantimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/theasiantimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theasiantimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theasiantimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=260"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/theasiantimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":646,"href":"http:\/\/theasiantimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260\/revisions\/646"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theasiantimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/theasiantimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theasiantimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theasiantimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}