What was the determining factor [in your decision] and when did you make the decision?
We made the decision yesterday really, yesterday – night – probably about one in the morning and even though there was a lot of good dialogue and conversation, it was a unanimous decision with our group.

What was the deciding factor between he [Howard] and Emeka Okafor?
I think when you have the first pick, your responsibility is to take the best player and our guys just had a lot of conviction that this was the best player. And even though we’re a team that, obviously, has struggled, and we need some immediate help, we just really wanted to not be short-sighted about how good a player we think this kid will be.

Was there any concern about Okafor’s back?
I wouldn’t put it directly on his back, but obviously the medical situation had to factor in and it did factor in to some degree. But really it was the strength of Dwight as a candidate more than any issues with Emeka.

Any movement on the Tracy McGrady trade talk front?
We haven’t attended to that at all today just because of all the focus on the draft, but we will be resuming immediately after the draft tonight and hopefully we’ll bring that to conclusion pretty quickly.

Will Tracy be in Orlando come start of the season?
It’s impossible for me to tell at this point. I couldn’t answer it.

John Weisbrod's Draft Night WDBO Interview

Before we talk about Dwight Howard, what has happened in the last few minutes?
“Well we’re real excited with a second pick we acquired in the first round. We can’t really confirm that for you yet, because we haven’t had the league trade call. It is a kid that we really really coveted. I mean we would have taken him as early as eight, nine, or ten in this draft. I can tell you our group is ecstatic in there, it is as exciting to us as the number one pick with Dwight. We’re fired up, and we obviously have two picks left to go, so all is well so far.”

What was it that made you lean toward taking Dwight?
“I think that when you have the first pick, your responsibility is to take the best player in the draft, and it just became so clear to our group that this is the best player in the draft. You want to go about it methodically and weigh everything, but it was unanimous at the end of the day. Will it take a little bit longer for him? Yeah, probably. Will Okafor be a more effective player next year when they are both rookies? Possibly, I think you can probably say that as well. But when you make this decision, despite of that, you think two, three, four years from now, he is really going to distinguish himself in comparison to Emeka and everyone else in the draft. We just think he is a special kid and there was not any hesitation for us in taking Dwight Howard.”

Dwight’s visit seemed to change the minds of some people, can you talk a little bit about that visit and what happened to convince everyone he was the No. 1 pick.
“I think when you hear ‘talented high school’ kid you automatically go back to the Tyson Chandlers and Eddie Currys. There are so many examples of kids that everyone says ‘oh this kid is so talented and athletic,’ and you get a little cynical to it. The percentage of those guys panning out to what they were supposed to be is not very good. I think we held that assumption before we met the kid. He came in, and he is such a unique kid character-wise, and maturity-wise. You know the workout we do with those kids for those two was just a one-on-none workout, so you don’t learn a whole lot from the workout. Our director of player personnel for example, Dave Twardzik, who was certainly on the Okafor side of the fence before the two kids visited, came back from his lunch with Dwight Howard and said, ‘There is no question, that is the kid we need to pick.’ It wasn’t even close when everyone met with the kid. He is really a special person and we feel extremely confident in the fact that he will reach that potential that so many high school kids before him have not reached, and that is what made it easy.”

What type of player are you looking for at 30?
“We were thinking about point guards, we were thinking about Chris Duhon being there before we just did this deal. The player we just got though in the first round is a point guard, so now we’re going to be looking at some other positions. There are still some real good Euros on the board, Sergey Monya is still there, he is a kid that we like. I think if we do end up taking someone by position, we need threes now, that would be our focus. Between this draft, and our options with Tracy, I feel pretty good about our backcourt. We have some bigs on the way as well, and obviously Dwight is a big, and that three spot is what we’re looking to shore up if the right player is there.”

Enjoying this yet?
“Yeah, it has been a lot of fun. I wish I was sleeping a little more than I am, but a night like this makes it worth it. It has just been worked to perfection so far, and we hope it will continue, we still have some work to do.”