Josh Howard-Success Story

Howard's intense work ethic has helped his career soar during his second season in the NBA MOVING ON UP
Winston-Salem Journal
Friday, January 21, 2005
The initiation is over. The hazing has stopped.Josh Howard no longer has to carry veterans' luggage or pick up the dinner tab or endure extra wrath from his coach, as he did last season as an NBA rookie.
He is a veteran now, a second-year forward with the Dallas Mavericks.
And the best part of this story is, he is playing very much like a veteran.
Howard will be in the starting lineup tonight when the Mavs take on the Charlotte Bobcats at the Charlotte Coliseum, hoping to add to what has so far been an outstanding Year Two.
It's the kind of success Howard dreamed of as a youngster growing up in Winston-Salem, the kind of success that area fans - but not all NBA scouts - envisioned after his standout career at Wake Forest.
"I'm hanging in there," Howard said earlier this week. "I'm happy with the way things are turning out. I'm still learning, and I've got a long way to go, but I feel like I'm playing pretty well. I've been working hard, and it's paying off."
Going into last night's game against the Los Angeles Clippers in Dallas, Howard was averaging 12.3 points, 7.1 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.3 steals in 33 games, playing an average of 33.5 minutes.
He missed three games recently with an upper respiratory infection, but before that he had reeled off several spectacular outings - including a 25-point, 13-rebound performance against Milwaukee and a 26-point, 16-rebound effort at New York.
And, he's playing the aggressive, hard-nosed defense that has been his trademark.
"Josh is having a fabulous season," Matt Pinto, the Mavs' television play-by-play announcer, said recently. "Obviously, they were pleased with him last year, but he has taken his game to another level this year. They were planning to bring him off the bench, but he has played so well that they have to start him.
"He's very much a part of their longterm plans. In fact, they've kind of changed the face of the team to accommodate him."
Howard, 6-7, proved skeptics wrong last season after falling well down in the 2003 NBA Draft. He was taken by the Mavericks with the 29th overall pick, the next-to-last pick of the first round.
He averaged 8.6 points and 5.5 rebounds in 67 games as a rookie, playing an average of 23.7 minutes a night.
For Howard, it has been a matter of getting a feel for the NBA, getting comfortable with Coach Don Nelson's system, and continuing to improve.
"I've got a year under my belt now, and I think I've learned to relax a little," Howard said. "Having a year's experience in this league makes a big difference. I know the system now, and I know what he (Nelson) wants me to do, and I think I've earned his trust. He demands consistency, and I've worked hard to be more consistent."
Howard felt he made significant progress last summer. He was the "star" of the Mavs' rookie team in the Rocky Mountain Revue (Salt Lake City) and the Summer Pro League (Long Beach, Calif.), and that allowed him the freedom to develop his offensive game.
"The summer league really helped me a lot," he said. "I've always considered myself to be a pretty good offensive player, but I still had a lot to prove to the coaches, and the summer league gave me the opportunity to do that. I played well, especially shooting the ball. That really helped my confidence coming into this season."
He started the season in a reserve role but moved into the starting lineup early while Michael Finley missed 15 games, and he has been a fixture in the starting lineup ever since. In fact, the Mavs have shuffled things about - moving Finley back to off-guard, using Howard and Jerry Stackhouse at small forward, and making Dirk Nowitzki solely a power forward.
"We got a lot of people hurt early, and that gave me an opportunity," Howard said.
"It was just a matter of going out and playing ball. You have to take advantage of the opportunities you get in this league, and when my time came, I was ready."
Adding to Howard's success is the fact that the Mavs have undergone another roster shake-up this season.
Gone from last year's team are Steve Nash, Antoine Walker, Antawn Jamison, Travis Best, Tony Delk, Edward Najera and Danny Fortson, and now aboard are Stackhouse, Jason Terry, Erick Dampier, Devin Harris, Darrell Armstrong.
That means that outside of Nowitzki, Finley and a few others, Howard has had to get used to playing with a completely different group.
"It's a very different," Howard said. "I think we only have five other guys back from last year, so we're like a whole new team. It has taken some time for us to jell together. We're still getting there.
"But I try to look at that in a positive way. I'm still a young player and I was able to learn a lot from the veterans that were here last year, especially Antawn Jamison.
"Now, I'm able to learn from these guys. I feel I've been very blessed, because I've been around some great veterans who don't mind showing a young guy what to do."
He's fully aware that the revolving door can and likely will continue in Dallas. That's the way Nelson and owner Mark Cuban operate.
That could propel him into an even bigger role.
"You never know what might happen," he said. "It's a business. We all understand that. I look at it like I've still got a lot to learn and I've still got a lot of work to do. But if it ever turns out that the torch is passed to me, I want to be ready to carry it."
• John Delong can be reached at jdelong@wsjournal.com

For those of you who don't know, Josh Howard played basketball at Wake Forest from 1999-2002. He was the ACC player of the year in 2002 and a first Team All-American. More important, is his story. He grew up without a father in one of Winston-Salem's poorest housing projects. He attended Glenn High School in nearby Kernersville and was recruited to Wake by Dave Odom. Although he had lived his entire life in Winston-Salem, he had never set foot on the campus although it was less than five miles from his home. He did not qualify for admission as a freshman, so he attended Hargrave Military Academy for a year, then enrolled. He had a hard time socially fitting in with the preppy crowd at Wake and spent most of his time off the court at his mom's home or with the crowd at Winston-Salem State. He also had a hard time with the academics and on one occasion during his sophomore year, he got fed up and was going to leave the campus and never come back. On his way to the parking lot to leave, he ran into one of his professors. That professor took Josh aside and told him he was letting his coach down, letting his team down, letting his professors down and most of all letting his mom down. He implored Josh to tough it out and he did. He matured socially and academically. Josh graduated with a degree in Religion in 2002 to the cheers of the commencement crowd and the tears of a proud mother. Although he was voted one of the top five college players in 2002, he waited out the NBA draft day at his coaches house, surrounded by family, friends, teammates and his new coach, Skip Prosser. He waited for hours as 28 names were called before his, including some players he had dominated in ACC games. When his name was finally called with the last pick of the draft (assuring him a guaranteed contract), the reality of what he had accomplished and overcome finally hit home and he broke down in tears in his mother's arms. He has been able to buy his mother a home with the money from his 3-year contract. His contract with the Dallas Mavericks will expire after next season and if he continues his stellar play, his next contract will set him up for life. Good luck, Josh.