Scouts missed Howard's potential
Ex-Wake star won't say `I told you so', but I will
RICK BONNELL
Now that ESPN has replayed the Pistons-Pacers brawl 2,479 times, we're all worn out watching bad people do bad things.
So instead, let's consider Josh Howard.
I was lucky enough to cover Howard at Wake Forest. He and Vlade Divac are the classiest, kindest athletes I know. It disturbed me in the spring of 2003 that so many NBA teams dismissed Howard as a mediocre talent, probably unworthy of a first-round pick.
Here's what's telling about Howard: This disturbed him less than it did me. When I interviewed him at the pre-draft camp, he said high-first round, low-first round or no-first round, he'd figure it out.
There wasn't a hint of malice in his tone. He wasn't being "dissed" by scouts, they just didn't know what he knew -- that he'd figure out how to excel.
The Dallas Mavericks took him with the 29th pick, the last selection of the first round. And now, 17 months later, he's the greatest bargain that draft offered.
"He's an All-Star-caliber player and he ought to put that on his wall," Mavericks coach Don Nelson said, after Howard collected 22 points, eight rebounds, four assists and three steals against the Minnesota Timberwolves. That meant going head-to-head much of the night against reigning most valuable player Kevin Garnett.
"I told Josh he ought to move his bar a little higher," Nelson said. "Whatever he thinks of himself, ladies and gentlemen, I'm here to tell you that he is a major player.
"He plays both ends of the floor, he has offensive tools now that he's expanding on, and I feel comfortable now playing a little point -- Josh (as in point-forward) where he can get us into a play."
In other words, the same do-it-all, figure-it-out way Howard functioned throughout his senior season at Wake Forest.
I scanned through the 2003 first round to consider where Howard would go now if those selections were redrawn. Obviously he should have gone ahead of Troy Bell, the 16th pick, who was already cut by the Memphis Grizzlies.
He at least should have gone 10th, since he's more productive than Jarvis Hayes is in Washington. There are only three players I'd definitely choose ahead of him -- LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony. You could justify taking Chris Bosh and Darko Milicic before him, on the logic that they're big guys with huge potential. But who else is a better bet? No one.
Josh is too nice a kid to gloat over scouts' stupidity in this matter.
So I'll gloat for him; I'm not that nice.
Around the league
• Obligatory malice-in-the-Palace Note 1: Grizzlies owner Michael Heisley says he'll call in the law to avoid something similar happening in Memphis.
"I want to send an emphatic message. If somebody throws something on the court, I want to prosecute them, and I want to take them to court," Heisley said. "If players get up in the stands, I want to prosecute them, too."
• Obligatory malice-in-the-Pacer Note 2: Remember what jerks we thought Philadelphians were, after last season's NFC Championship Game? Spurs forward Malik Rose draws the line between Philly and Detroit: "We may boo Santa Claus and throw frozen batteries in the end zone, but we don't throw $7 beers (at players). We don't waste those."
• The NBA can't head off brawls between players and fans, but they sure will make the world safe from iPod. The league demanded Vince Carter and Tim Duncan stop wearing their high-tech music boxes during pregame warm-ups.
So you can shoot off fireworks and roll motorcycles onto the court during player introductions, but you can't let players listen to what they want on their headsets?
Incredible.
-- WRITERS IN OTHER NBA CITIES PROVIDED SOME OF THIS MATERIAL.
-- RICK BONNELL: (704) 358- 5129;
RBONNELL@CHARLOTTEOBSERVER.COM. Rick