Atlanta native Dwight Howard issued himself an on-air pause Monday night while describing his battle against Los Angeles Lakers center Andrew Bynum. The 25-year-old Orlando Magic center caught himself referring to Bynum as "long," which sounds icky! This legal precedent will really busy up the next NBA Draft broadcast.
The pause thing is either a diligently enforced wordplay game or a sign of rampant homophobia depending on how seriously you take these things, but I'm not sure how the "going back and forth" comment that came just before that "long" one slipped past Howard's AYOmeter. Pause, no homo, and so forth offended people like four years ago, but rarely re-emerge in public these days.
If you're not already familiar with the ins and outs of pause culture, here's a previous moment in NBA pause history: Gus Johnson delivering a ruling on a Spike Lee comment.
For more on Orlando Magic basketball and probably not mid-2000s slang, go to Orlando Pinstriped Post.