This former Denver Nuggets guard has controversial views
During a recent episode of the Road Trippin’ podcast, former Denver Nuggets guard Jameer Nelson was asked who he would choose between 19-year-old Dwight Howard and 19-year-old Victor Wembanyama. While Nelson was extremely complimentary of the San Antonio Spurs rookie, he went with Howard.
“It’s crazy how versatile he is at 7’4″, 7’5,” Nelson said. “What’s the closest thing we’ve seen, [Kevin Durant]? It moved and it was big and long. Obviously he’s got some work to do and has a deep understanding of the NBA game and the physicality, which will be a question mark for him, but for the most part the talent level is… I don’t know if we have I haven’t seen a guy with anywhere near as talented as him since LeBron [James].”
Even though Nelson admitted he doesn’t like to compare eras, he still chose Howard over Wembanyama and talked about how special his former Orlando Magic teammate was.
“I don’t like to compare eras, but I can say this,” Nelson said. I don’t understand why Dwight is not one of the 75 greatest players of all time.” “When we were together in Orlando, he was probably number one or number two in terms of the face of the league for a few years. For us, as a team, we were always first or second in the league, and a lot of that was because of him… I’ll take Dwight.”
Nelson’s opinion may be controversial, simply because of Wembanyama’s popularity, but there can be no doubt that Dwight Howard was special at that age.
