Howard tries to end curse of Fab Five
NBA Most Valuable Player Derrick Rose is just one of the obstacles standing between the Miami Heat and a championship ring.
One of the Heat's biggest hurdles might come from its own roster.
The Wall Street Journal writes about the "curse" of the Fab Five, which applies in this case because Miami forward Juwan Howard is the last remaining active member of the most heralded recruiting class in college basketball history.
According to the story, Howard would be the first member of the group to win a "significant" title.
Of course, the team lost the NCAA championship game each of the two years the full squad played together at Michigan. The Wolverines also failed to win a Big Ten title in either of those seasons.
Jalen Rose made it to the NBA Finals in 2000 with the Pacers, but Indiana lost to the Lakers. Chris Webber's Sacramento Kings had a Finals appearance ripped away by questionable officiating in 2002. He also looked like a logical choice for the 2000 U.S. Olympic team, which went on to win gold, but Antonio McDyess was selected instead.
Jimmy King played two seasons in the NBA, and Ray Jackson never made it to the league.
Howard represents the last shot.
"The criticism hasn't annoyed me at all," he said. "They're right. We haven't won before."
Well, that's not entirely true. What Howard forgets, and the Wall Street Journal story fails to point out, is King's CBA championship in 1998 when his Quad City Thunder beat Sioux Falls in seven games. King was the MVP of the league that season.
While the group is short on titles, King and the three other Fab Fivers to reach the NBA combined to make $431 million in salary over 46 seasons in the NBA.
That's roughly half of what the group got under the table for signing to play in Ann Arbor in the first place.
n THANKS, BUT NO THANKS -- It appears the Oklahoma City Thunder were rebuked in their efforts to reconnect with the franchise's past.
According to an interview on KJR in Seattle, which was transcribed by Seattle Weekly, the team offered Shawn Kemp and his wife front-row seats to watch the Thunder play the Denver Nuggets in the opening round of the playoffs.
Kemp is one of the biggest stars in the history of the Seattle SuperSonics, the team that relocated to Oklahoma City and became the Thunder.
"I live out here in Seattle. I carry the Sonics in my heart, for the rest of my life. I have a problem rooting for Oklahoma, I just do," he told Dave "Softy" Mahler and Ian Furness when asked why he turned down the tickets.
"You know, the people (in Seattle) deserve basketball. It was taken and robbed from these people in this area, and my loyalty remains in this area for these people until they get their team back," he said. "I won't be sitting on anyone's front row until the Sonics are back in action."
There might have been another reason for Kemp turning down the tickets.
Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a baby sitter willing to look after seven kids for a few days?
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