By Melanie Curtsinger | February 16, 2007

Dwight Howard joins Darrell Armstrong, Nick Anderson and Otis Smith as Magic players that have competed in the Slam Dunk Contest

The problem for Dwight Howard? He makes everything look too easy.

Catching the ball a foot behind your head and slamming it down? Effortless.

Flying over Tim Duncan to throw down a jam to win the game? Easy as cake.

Winning the dunk contest?

Not as simple.

This weekend, Eastern Conference All-Star Dwight Howard heads to Las Vegas to try to dethrone Nate Robinson, who is a whole 14 inches shorter than him, along with Gerald Green and a rookie who doesn’t even want to be there (Tyrus Thomas), in the Sprite Slam Dunk contest Saturday night. Howard heads to Vegas riding high – in his last five games, he has connected on over 80 percent of his shots, including a game-winner against the Spurs – but he will need to bring that momentum with him if he wants to add his name alongside the likes of Michael Jordan and Dominique Wilkins as 2007 Slam Dunk Champion.

Luckily for Howard though, he has a veteran of the dunk contest at his access every day – Orlando Magic General Manager Otis Smith. Smith, who competed in the 1988 and 1991 contests during NBA All-Star weekend, never won the competition (he finished fourth in ‘88 and seventh in ‘91), but he does have plenty of advice to pass along to his budding superstar.

“I told him to just have fun,” Smith said. “With him, they are going to be looking for the length and heighth on his dunks – with his height (6-11), he makes dunks that are very hard look easy, so he has to think of ways to be creative and get noticed. He can do things that other guys can’t do, but he makes things like dunks under the legs and things like that look easy, so he has to find a way to stand out.”

Standing out shouldn’t be too hard for Howard, who is a regular on SportsCenter’s top-10 plays of the day rotation, but Smith knows from experience that a regular everyday dunk will not be enough to win the contest.

“I threw the ball from one side of the rim to the other and caught it and dunked it back that way so I was kind of looking back over the rim,” Smith said of his favorite jam he concocted in ‘88. “I was trying to convince Dwight to do it, but he has a hard time with the toss. I thought about stuff, but I never practiced like he did. I just kind of thought about it in my head and then I would just try to put it into play when the dunk contest happened.”

Magic GM Otis Smith competed in two Slam Dunk Contests - 1988 and 1991

Howard, unlike Smith, will already have his repertoire ready when his name is called Saturday night at the Thomas & Mack Center. He has been preparing for awhile now – even lobbying to try to get the invitation from the league. Smith says that is just a sign of how the times have changed since he was essentially hand-picked to showcase his skills.

“They drafted you. Back in those days, they didn’t ask you, they pretty much told you that you were in the dunk contest. You weren’t trying to get in it (like Howard).”

Another difference from Smith’s experience is the level of competition. Instead of the Jordan’s and Wilkins’ of the league entering the contest, Howard is facing a rookie (Thomas), a guy who once played in the D-League (Green) and another who averages just 18 minutes a night for the Knicks (Robinson). But, Smith notes, just because there was bigger names in it back then doesn’t mean it won’t be just as exciting with these new youngsters.

“It was not as big as probably you guys think it was because those guys were dunkers, and back in those days I guess I was a dunker, so it was good competition. You knew it was going to come down to between (Jordan and Wilkins) and you wanted to put yourself into the position to see where you were because Dominique was a human highlight film during the game and Jordan was in Chicago, so they were at the top of their game.”

And, Smith added, unlike the circus the dunk contest has become now (new rules this year state that you have to have a teammate in one dunk), when he participated, “you didn’t go out there to just compete; you went out there to win.”

Overall though, Smith is eager to see Howard follow in his footsteps by participating in the contest, and he can’t wait to see what tricks the 21-year-old is going to pull out.

“It is a fun experience,” Smith said. “I think everyone should try to do it if you have the ability to do it. It’s nerve-racking in one sense because all eyes are on you and nobody is out there and it’s just you. The bad part of it is that it is just you and everybody around the world is watching you and the good part of it is, and I was telling Dwight this, that it adds another 5-6 inches to your vertical because of the adrenaline rush that it offers you. And that part is really fun.”

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Melanie Curtsinger is a Communications Coordinator for the Orlando Magic