Juwan Howard knows disrespect, the chestnut for general player unhappiness. Like, “He’s making $12 million and I’m only making $10 million and I’m better. You’re disrespecting me.” Or, “He gets a three-room suite on the road, and I just get a two-room suite. And his lobster is from colder water. You’re disrespecting me.”
Let’s see if we can count the times.
There was Howard’s rookie season, when the power forward averaged 17 points and 8.4 rebounds for the Washington Bullets. So the Bullets used their first-round draft pick for a power forward, Rasheed Wallace.
Then there was after Howard’s third season, when the Bullets declined to match a free-agent offer from the Miami Heat, only to have the NBA disallow the offer and force him back to Washington.
Then there was the trade to Dallas for a bunch of backups, which landed Howard with his best team ever–and the only time he moved past the first round of the playoffs–only to be traded before the end of the next season to the rebuilding Denver Nuggets.
Then it was on to Orlando as a free agent for a season. Then he was shipped with Tracy McGrady to Houston, where a virus resulted in a heart ailment that could have been fatal and a recovery that found the Rockets already having traded for Stromile Swift to replace him.
And then this season playing behind Shane Battier, then Chuck Hayes, and then not at all.
But as the Rockets play the Bulls here Monday night with Yao Ming out with a broken leg, Juwan Howard is back in the starting lineup. He still is not very athletic, not much of a jumper, long shooter or dunker. But Howard is the only member of Michigan’s famed Fab Five still playing a significant NBA role.
“I don’t get into all that [disrespect talk],” says the Chicago native and Vocational High School grad. “You have to go out and earn your respect, in practice, in game situations, when your name is called to be ready to go in the game and provide what the team needs.
“Why go out and speak publicly about situations? Why should I ever go out and speak about some displeasure when I can go out and compete and enjoy what I’m doing? The best part of all this still is 1994 when I was drafted. It’s been a dream of mine from when I was a little kid. I wanted to play in the NBA and I have. That day is still the high point in my career.”
No, you don’t hear much about Howard, who still doesn’t jump much, run too fast or shoot too well.
But in his 13th NBA season, Howard carries career averages of 16.3 points and 7.2 rebounds. And though he’s averaging 7.4 points and 6.0 rebounds this season, he was averaging 15.2 points and 8.2 rebounds in five straight wins without Yao going into Sunday, when the streak ended with a 103-99 loss at Minnesota. Howard kept up his solid play with 19 points and five rebounds.
Howard has played in an All-Star Game and earned a third-team all-league honor one season. He doesn’t show up on highlight shows, or in the police blotter. Perhaps he never says much interesting or clever, but he works on his game like he’s not a multimillionaire and appreciates every day like it was the first.
Howard is the kind of player who makes you feel proud to be a fan of the NBA.
“I look back and I can’t believe it’s 13 years,” Howard said one day last week after practice. “And now the fact I’m playing a lot and playing well, I thank God because I’ve worked hard at it.”
It wasn’t really coach Jeff Van Gundy’s plan.
In fact, Howard was startled when Van Gundy told him before the start of the season he wasn’t even in the rotation anymore. The Rockets wanted the deep shooting of Battier at power forward. Then they decided they needed the rugged rebounding of Hayes next to Yao.
“I didn’t like the idea,” Howard admits of going from starter to DNP. “But I figured coach Van Gundy researched it and felt it gave us the best chance to win. It so happened it lasted three games. Then he wanted to start the young guy, Hayes. I disagreed with that. Yao and I had won a lot of games. But I respected the coach’s decision. He studied this more than I did.”
And then Yao went down and they needed Howard starting again.
“Juwan has been one of the best professionals I’ve ever had the chance to coach,” Van Gundy wrote in an e-mail. “He didn’t play the first game this year, but instead of questioning, he just kept preparing. He is the same guy every day: comes in, works hard, totally committed to the team, enthusiastic.
“Most veterans lose the love of the game before they actually lose their game. Juwan still loves the gym, the preparation that goes into being a quality player.”
It has certainly been lucrative for Howard, who signed a contract worth more than $100 million when he was returned to Washington. But it never has been easy.
He was overshadowed by Chris Webber and Jalen Rose in college and by Webber, Rod Strickland and Mitch Richmond in Washington, dumped by Michael Jordan in Washington when his contract supposedly was an albatross for the franchise, and disposed of further by Dallas along with Tim Hardaway, who would later smash a TV set on the playing floor one game.
“Yeah,” Howard recalls with a laugh. “Tim didn’t take it as well.”
Howard called that a low point, but never protested.
He played another season with a 17-win Denver team, leading the Nuggets in scoring and signing with the Magic, only to be shipped out with McGrady after playing a team-high 81 games for Orlando, an ironman known for his heart, but even that became uncertain.
“It was life-threatening,” Howard said of the viral myocarditis he contracted late in the 2004-05 season when he was sidelined by a knee injury. “At times I thought my career might be over. I couldn’t do any conditioning for six to eight months. I couldn’t take my heart rate over 120.
“But I came back the next season and played 80 games and there’s been no aftereffects. I didn’t allow it to beat me.”
And, remarkably, hardly anyone has been beating the Rockets lately even without Yao, who was having an MVP season. It mostly seems to be because of McGrady, who has been producing big offensive numbers again after a return from back problems.
And with very respectable play from Juwan Howard.
