Juwan Howard was in Las Vegas coaching the Nets Summer League entry vs. the Magic … who his son plays for.
Juwan Howard was on the bench as a Brooklyn Nets assistant coach Thursday night as the Brooklyn Nets faced the Orlando Magic with divided loyalties, as Adam Zagoria wrote this week.
“I’m very blessed to have this opportunity to come back to the Association, be a part of the Brooklyn Nets, one of the most classiest organizations and at the same time watching my son be a part of a great organization in the Orlando Magic,” Howard said of his 6’6” son, Jett, a Magic wing. “We’ve seen the growth that Orlando has done year after year and the run they had in the playoffs. Now they’re adding to it and it’s good that Jett’s going to be a part of that.”
If there was any conflicted feelings, the Magic made it easier Thursday by resting Jett … and the Nets won in overtime, 102-100.
Howard and lead assistant Steve Hetzel are running the Nets summer league program while Jordi Fernandez who hired him as an assistant, is focusing on his other big job, as head coach of Team Canada.
The former member of the Michigan Fab 5 has been out of the NBA for five years. In his 19-year career, he won two rings with the Heat, then served as an assistant coach under Erik Spoelstra for another six years before joining the University of Michigan where he spent five years before being let go back in March following a series of issues including academic issues, injuries and a high profile altercation.
Howard admits his NBA heart is still in Miami, but believes the Nets, who he called one of the NBA’s “classiest” organizations, are “building something special.”
“As we know, my heart is always with the Heat,” he told Autumn Johnson of NBA-TV during the Nets-Knicks Summer League game in Las Vegas on Tuesday. “I’m a Heat lifer, but at the same token being with the Brooklyn Nets, this is going to be a new chapter and we’re going to build something special there.”
Howard will bring his Heat and Michigan Wolverine experience to Jordi Fernandez’s staff. He and Hetzel have the only head coaching experience on the nine-man staff. Hetzel was a head coach in the G League. He says he took the job with the Nets believing in Fernandez.
“We take [the next step together] by being all-in,” Howard said of the Nets. “And that’s when it’s going good for you, as well as when it’s going bad for you. And it starts with our head coach. He’s bringing in a culture that he feels is going to put us over the top. I love the fact that we’re talking about player development first and getting these young guys better.
“And we’ve been in the gym for the last couple months just grinding. At the same time, building our culture and habits of how we’re going to play this upcoming season. So Jordi, he’s pumped and I’m ready to join forces with him.”
Zagoria spoke to Dariq Whitehead about Howard.
“Just picking his brain and seeing how intelligent he is and his knowledge for the game,” Whitehead said last week. “I just love talking to him because he’s a real positive dude….He’s always pushing us to be the best version of ourselves, and looking at us as if we were his own kids and he’s been coaching us for years.”