*With the high school basketball playoffs in full force in Georgia, our editor Justin Young dives back into the history books and examines the best players he's ever seen play. Georgia's Louis Williams was an easy choice. 

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There he was, the all muscle, all manchild of a human being.

Dwight Howard was not your typical teenager. At least not at face value. He was 6-foot-10, uniquely athletic, chiselled like an Olympic athlete and a true unicorn amongst his small school peers inside the tiny gym of the tiny Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy.

The action inside the private school gym off Campbellton in SW Atlanta started with a prayer. NBA scouts and executives would try to downplay their presence but couldn’t amongst the maroon bleachers.

They were as easy to spot as Howard.

The nation’s top high school prospect was easy to spot. He was usually doing chin-ups on the rim. He was usually sending blocked shots to the track that sat above the 500-seat capacity gym. The four rows of bleachers were full of friends and family and a community that just loved their little slice of heaven in Atlanta.

Simple times for a generational talent.

After one of SACA’s 50-point wins, I interviewed Howard as I had done so many times before. He was always gracious and grateful for the national attention that I brought to the action. Dwight, Sr. was nearby and so was mama Howard. They were protective, to a point, but let their 6-foot-10 all-world son answer my questions.

On this particular night Howard was quick with his answers. Anxious. I had never seen him in this light before. Always with a polite smile, Howard was trying to breeze through the interview.

“What’s going on with you tonight?” I asked him with curiosity.

“I’m sorry Mr. Young. I just really need to get home,” he said as he put his giant hands on my shoulders. “My mom said she bought Finding Nemo on DVD and I want to get home and watch it.”

That’s the Dwight Howard that I know.

Gracious. Goofy. Still, and always, a giant kid who wants to go home and watch Finding Nemo.

Now, take whatever hot take you have of the 2022 version of Mr. Howard and throw it out of the window. It is irrelevant. The best version of Dwight Howard is worthy of first-ballot inclusion into the Basketball Hall of Fame. If there was a prep stars Hall of Fame, he’s one of the very best that we have ever seen. 

Howard is in the same category as Shaq and other elite great big men that we’ve encountered in high school. There wasn’t anyone like him in Georgia history and only a handful of guys like him nationally ever as a teenager. 

During the day, Howard would fold himself into a maroon suit coat and khaki pants. At night, he was a muscular teenager that ripped the iron attached to the backboards. Howard was a special prospect and a state champion with coach Courtney Brooks at SACA.

He and Javaris Crittenton made up the fun tandem in Georgia’s smallest gyms in the state. Howard and Randolph Morris made for great high school hoops theatre.

Fun story, really fast… 

I was talking to Howard in the stands at Parkview High School during their annual Thanksgiving tournament. We were setting the stage for what the story was going to be about. But throughout the conversation, we kept pausing and we found ourselves just watching the girl's team on the floor. 

With dozens of NBA scouts in the stands there to see Howard, another great one was on the hardwood absolutely dominating every possession. I sat there with an elite man child and we were both in awe of one of the very first high school games of one of the greatest women’s players of all time - Maya Moore was on the hardwood floor and owning everything. 

That was pretty cool.

I wouldn’t have the career I have had if it weren’t for Howard. He was the show everywhere he went and I was welcomed into their travelling show with open arms. I’m grateful for it and loved every second of seeing one of the greatest players ever in high school basketball. He was so much fun to watch. 

I don’t know if we will ever see anyone quite like him again in Georgia high school hoops. He was truly a one-of-one.