Juwan Howard stood at his locker at the Rose Garden getting ready to exit stage left after a recent Portland Trail Blazers home game. If it wasn’t for a member of the teams’ media staff preparing Howard for an upcoming community appearance, Juwan might have got away clean thus leaving me without an interview and eventually feature story for SLAM online.

Luckily for me, Howard gladly stuck around for a bit to talk about his Fab Five days, thoughts on retirement and why Greg Oden just needs to be Greg Oden.

It's clear Juwan isn’t planning on shutting it down anytime soon despite giving it some thought as he said. And honestly, why should he if he continues to play at this rate and with the point-guard like vision and overall competitiveness we witnessed during the preseason.

As one reader commented on the "Fab One" story - which was originally intended to run Tuesday morning by the way - "one gets the impression that he is ready and willing to play 30 minutes or DNP-CD with the same professionalism."

Well said.

Aside from being one of three guys from his 1994 draft class still kicking it in the league – Jason Kidd and Grant Hill being the other two – Howard’s all-around numbers remain impressive. His 2004-05 season in Houston withstanding, Juwan averaged double-figures 11 out of his first 12 seasons in the league and isn’t a guy familiar with living on the injured reserve list.

As Juwan explained, his offseason workouts and conditioning programs with famed NBA trainer Tim Grover have a lot to do with that.

But even more so, you have to believe that if Howard can remain healthy and his body continues to stand the test of time, he may end up having one of those Kevin Willis – who played until he was 44 years old - type careers longevity wise. And from the sound of it, the organization already appreciates the veteran presence he’s brought to the team too in the short amount of time he’s been with the Blazers.

There could be a few more one-year contracts in Portland in Howard’s future.

photo: simononsports

Comments (0)

Name

Email

Website

Title

Comment

smaller | bigger

Subscribe via email (registered users only)

Add Comment