It was a practice just like any other for the
Miami Heat.
The starters were out on the floor running
through their offensive schemes against the
scout team. Among the latter, per usual, was
then-assistant coach Juwan Howard.
Howard, having played 19 years in
the NBA, standing at 6-foot-9 and doing
everything he can to keep in shape, almost
always ran with the scout team in practice.
In a typical pick-and-roll play, Howard
handled the ball at the top of the key. It was
all set to run smoothly — the player came
over to set the pick for Howard who then
dribbled around him to execute the play.
Fighting hard through the screen, guard
Dion Waiters barrelled through the defender
hitting Howard square on the chin, and
cleanly knocking out one of his teeth.
So how did Howard react?
He held his tooth in his hand, waited for
the right moment to head to his office, placed
it down on his desk and resumed practice.
After
subsequently
seeking
medical
attention, Howard returned to the Heat
facilities later that day to coach that night’s
game. There was even a rotation of the
assistant coaches who had to talk to the
media at halftime, and Howard’s number
was called.
“And I still talked, tooth missing and
everything,” Howard told The Daily. “Why
not? A) we’re gonna make no excuses and B)
you gotta embrace the suck. And that time I
embraced the suck.”
For Howard, the act of palming a
recently-separated tooth and continuing on
business-as-usual was summed up in the
question “Why not?” It was an afterthought
— a testament to his professionalism and
commitment.
For his players, though, the act revealed a
man who was undeniably committed to the
game, his team and his family.
“When his tooth came out, he didn’t even
come out of the game,” then-Heat guard Josh
Richardson told The Daily. “And I remember
just being like, ‘That’s crazy!’ And we’re all
looking at his tooth like, ‘Uhhhhh, you gonna
get that?’ He just like had it in his hand.”
Tooth in hand, Howard continued down
the road of a transformative time in his
career with the Heat.
***
If there was one thing the players knew
Howard for as a coach it was energy. Energy,
energy, energy. He would routinely single-
handedly liven up flat practices or get on
guys for not showing an attitude up to his
standards.
And typically, he did that the only way
he knew how: by being vocal and playing
basketball.
Talk to former players on those Heat
rosters and they will regale you with tales
of ‘17’ — the nickname given to Howard by
LeBron James for his 17 years (really 19) in
the NBA. They recount stories from practice
where Howard, unlike nearly all other
assistant coaches, would run with the scout
team and do everything he could to dunk on
players often 10-plus years younger than him
or block their shots.
And the team loved it. Vociferously
screaming, “Get that shit out of here!” after
registering a block or dunking right on
a guy’s head, Howard would revel in the
team’s cheers.
Walking in the building every morning,
Howard made sure everyone knew where
the level of energy was going to be that day
— as high as it could possibly be. Getting
excited about things as banal as a cup of
coffee, Howard would bellow, “Got my
coffee today!” strolling down the halls of the
facilities.
Howard’s honesty also enamored his
players.
As an assistant with the Heat, Howard’s
official responsibilities included developing
the big men on the roster and optimizing
defense. In these efforts, Miami’s centers
Hassan Whiteside and Bam Adebayo are
testaments to that.
Ask either one and they will be quick to
point to Howard’s honesty as a trait that sets
him apart. He will tell you like it is every
time regardless of whether it’s something
you want to hear or not.
“He
was
honest,”
Adebayo said. “He never
lied to me. He never ran
away from the fact that I
needed to hear something,
he would say it, he never
shied away from that.
And I feel like that’s what
really brought me closer to
Juwan was that he was so
honest with me.”
Added Whiteside: “He
was like the guy that’s like,
if there are guys playing
around or something, he’ll let ’em know. He’d
say, ‘You’re not taking this serious,’ or he’d
let you know. I mean he was just honest. He’d
keep it to you straight every time.”
For almost all of Howard’s Miami
coaching stint, he was just an assistant.
Assigned to player development and defense,
he was never able to use his leadership skills
as the man in charge. That is, until the 2016
Summer League rolled around.
Each year, each NBA team selects one
of the assistant coaches to lead its Summer
League roster in early competition. In 2016,
it was Howard’s time.
It was Howard’s first time ever serving
in a head coach position. In many ways, it
was the perfect opportunity for the young
coach — an ability to get his feet wet with the
position without being completely thrown to
the wolves.
While he wasn’t reinventing the wheel
or tasked with redesigning Heat concepts,
Howard was able to learn some of the
minutiae of the position — how to talk in
timeouts, who to call on when games are
getting close, how to scream on the sidelines.
“He defined guys’ roles early, and I think
that was good for a coach to be able to do
that,” said Richardson, one of the key players
on that Summer League
team. “He would give good
speeches, get his message
across, and he’s a good
speaker in front of guys,
and I know that’s probably
tough in your first coaching
job having to give an
opening speech at training
camp, or having to be the
guy talking to the team
every timeout and stuff
like that, but I think he did
a great job navigating that
for the first time.”
The Heat would place fourth that year,
going 3-2 through the tournament.
But Howard left with something far more
valuable than the trophy — confidence in
his ability to become the head coach of a
basketball team someday.
“It taught me a lot in that I enjoyed the
experience, I learned from it,” Howard said.
“I left there that summer thinking, ‘You
know, I can be a head coach in this league.’ It
gave me a vote of confidence.”
Before that, Howard had had no problem
being vocal. No experience talking to a team
with the title of “head coach,” sure, but he’s
always been a leader in the locker room.
And no one recognized that more than
JACOB KOPNICK
Daily Sports Writer
He’ll give you
the shirt off his
back, that’s the
type of person
he is.
Tuesday, November 5, 2019 // TIPOFF 2019
4B