How A YouTube Video ENDED An NBA Career..

how do you go from 40 million dollar nba deals an entire city chanting your name good looking howard's gonna let it fly it'll count if it goes to it all crashing down with one viral video this is the rise and fall of josh howard josh howard was driving his black lexus at 94 miles an hour josh howard one time had dallas in the palm of his hand that's a problem now if there's one thing you need to know about josh howard he'll do just about anything to create controversy like let's just take a look at his draft howard came into the 2003 nba draft as a projected top 10 pick but ended up being selected as the 29th pick by the dallas mavericks why well in an interview just a few days before the draft howard thought it was the perfect time to admit to the world that he was a stoner and in 2003 america this would not slide teams around the nba took this as howard being lazy and undedicated so the man fell all the way to the bottom of the first round luckily this didn't kill howard's career because mavericks owner mark cuban he didn't really care mark figured if the guy could ball then he could help the mavericks win however mark would soon realize that if howard was gonna stay in the nba his skill wouldn't be enough you see off-court drama can be overlooked most of the time but only if you've got at least one of these two things tremendous skill on the court or a good reputation and howard would teach mark that lesson the hard way for now though howard's playing career got off to an amazing start and by his third season he already helped carry the mavs to the 2006 nba finals unfortunately this year was a loss but it only motivated howard his only goal now was to win his first championship so coming into the next season he took his game to a new level putting up 18.9 points per game in dallas they became the best team in the nba winning 67 games and only losing 15. this season solidified howard in nba history books marking his first ever all-star appearance although as fast as things went up for howard they came violently crashing down see fast forward to the 2008 playoffs the mavericks were facing a young hornets team in the first round and with the playoff experience that dallas had this series should have been an easy one however coming into the series the mavs had an unlucky start they lost the first two games and immediately went into panic mode these losses got into howard's head and he started to overthink every shot and every movement on the court instead of putting up his usual 20 points a night he was only scoring 12. 12. and remember how i said an nba player needs two things solid encore skill and a good reputation off the court well howard was playing like trash and his team was down 0-2 in the series so at this point he just needs to keep his name out of the headlines and get his confidence back on the court but instead he went on a radio show and made a mistake that would tarnish his public image create a media firestorm for the mavs and mark the beginning of his downfall is all of this true that i am reading so far like players in the league have that problem yes yeah i mean i don't think there's nothing that's hidden and very players do smoke marijuana you don't feel that you have a problem that you you don't smoke any during the season but you do smoke in the off season uh how true is that yeah true but that has nothing to do with what i do as far as basketball you know when i go out there i go out and perform see when howard first admitted that he smoked it was just about him but now he brought the mavs and the entire nba into it so this permanently damaged howard's public image and his relationship with his team i mean the media ran with the story that the devil's lettuce made him and the mavs lazy and unfocused and if that wasn't bad enough instead of preparing for the next game the entire mavericks organization was stuck putting out the media frenzy that howard started i mean even mark cuban had to get involved and when he was asked about the punishment he said we won't make it public but we'll deal with it internally and put an end to this at this point though this was howard's first slip up so the mavs they weren't really too worried they just wrote this moment off as strike number one i mean they're in the middle of a huge series that needed their full attention however people can only give you so many chances and dallas would soon find out this was just the beginning of howard's career crashing and burning as the series went on the mavs found themselves one loss away from going home now down three to one in the series what do you think howard did hit the gym practice more watch some film well instead of doing any of that he decided to throw himself a massive birthday party yeah with the season on the line howard went as far as handing out flyers to his birthday party in the locker room after they lost while he was averaging 12 points a game what and to make the situation even worse howard told head coach avery johnson to cancel practice so that everyone could come yeah one game away from going home pretty much everyone on the map's team was pissed they saw this as howard only caring about himself and you'd think he'd be able to take a hint but he went through with his birthday party anyways and the mavs were knocked out of the playoffs the very next game the media blew up this story and mavs fans immediately jumped on the bandwagon claiming that howard's distractions ruined their season and as far as mark cuban and the organization were concerned this was howard's second strike in a single week not only did howard's antics cost him the playoffs he was also playing like garbage at this point what use was it keeping him on the team and just when you think it couldn't get any worse howard got arrested when howard went back to his hometown for the summer he decided that getting in trouble with the media wasn't enough now it's time to mess with the police wand i'm standing right by the intersection of business 40 and silas creek parkway in winston-salem that's where at 11 25 last night police say josh howard was driving his black lexus at 94 miles an hour while racing another car howard was arrested and charged on three counts speeding drag racing and reckless driving this man was going 94 and a 55. what the hell was he thinking when this news broke fans wanted howard's head they demanded that he be fined by the nba or suspended for 20 games in the next season i it's one thing to make your team lose a playoff series it's another thing to risk innocent people's lives i mean this really should have been strike three but before the mavericks could even react to how dangerous stupid and illegal this all was that fateful straw that broke the camel's back came to life a video of howard went viral and he accidentally sparked a worldwide controversy how big a deal is this the climate that america's in right now to come off as being unpatriotic is not good on the back of all the things been going on with joshua for the last five months yeah i would have to agree with that and the really sad thing about it is that josh howard at one time had dallas in the palm of his hand he was an underrated player coming into this league he proved himself to be one of the most important parts of the team and with these incidents the last few months his whole persona there i think has uh has been turned upside down and i would be surprised if in a city like dallas where the red white and blue is so strong that he survived staying on that team this year you really think this could be fatal his remaining in the city i do think that and it's not just the dallas mavericks it's just any other team this type of baggage you don't want to have on you because it goes beyond the dallas mavericks which team wants to pick up somebody that is being you know labeled as unpatriotic so it's not just dallas's situation it's anybody if the mock human decides to let him go what other team is going to pick him up at this point in just three months howard completely ruined his reputation and this viral video was his third strike the mavs organization had enough so they traded him as soon as they could he bounced around three different teams tore his acl twice and went from putting up 20 points a game to just six remember how i said an nba player needs two things they need some ball skill and a good reputation well now howard had neither so shortly after josh howard was officially out of the nba perhaps the saddest part of the story is that just a year after josh was traded the mavs went on to win the 2011 championship without him the man sat on the sidelines of another team missing out on all of the glory that could have been his now even though howard made a lot of mistakes throughout his career since his retirement he's tried to right his wrongs he's now a coach at the university of north texas helping kids be the best basketball player they can beat and teaching them all the life lessons that he had to learn the hard way from an nba star to a college head coach one viral video may have been the downfall of howard's nba career but it opened a new chapter one where he can inspire the future and continue doing what he loves [Music] basketball you

Channel: REBOUND

Views: 3,975,926

Keywords: nba, rebound central, rebound, josh howard

Id: HJfkWNStVgM

Length: 12min 0sec (720 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 30 2021