One of my favorite rituals to watch in all of sports is to see the New Zealand All Blacks — the national rugby team — perform the native Maori war dance the Haka before each game. One of the few sports rituals I would consider genuinely intimidating. (Confession, I enjoy watching rugby and we’ve got a good team in my neck of the woods playing it.)
Dwight Howard is working his way through Europe on an adidas promotional tour. The All Blacks are in Europe now as well. So, of course, Dwight joined them in doing the dance (he’s not in front but he’s pretty easy to spot quickly).
I would love to see David Stern’s face if Howard and the Magic make this their new pregame ritual instead of traditional pregame introductions. And how many technicals would Steve Javie give him for this?