Josh Howard is an idiot....Again.

[soap07]

Without vigilance he displayed his "beliefs" in a manner that could be damaging to both his public image, the Dallas Mavericks and the NBA as a whole...And for that he is an idiot.

He is not only an American citizen he is also an individual who represents the NBA every time he walks out the door of his $15 million dollar home.


Well, you can climb off the high horse if you'd like. If fans really change their perception of the NBA or the Mavs because of this incident, it's those fans who are ridiculous, not Howard.

[JSD]

Without vigilance he displayed his "beliefs" in a manner that could be damaging to both his public image, the Dallas Mavericks and the NBA as a whole...And for that he is an idiot.

He is not only an American citizen he is also an individual who represents the NBA every time he walks out the door of his $15 million dollar home.


Well, you can climb off the high horse if you'd like. If fans really change their perception of the NBA or the Mavs because of this incident, it's those fans who are ridiculous, not Howard.

High horse huh? 

I'm not going focus on your comment just yet. Instead I'd like to hear your perspective...

In your opinion why is he or isn't he an idiot?

[soap07]

In your opinion why is he or isn't he an idiot?

How am I supposed to know? I don't know him personally. Something getting lost in all of this is that Howard was at a charity event for a good cause. Who cares what he says into a cell phone camera? He wasn't hurting anybody nor was he saying anything malicious.

Do I agree with his comments? No. Is he being a hypocrite by making tacitly trashing the country he lives in while making millions? Sure, but I don't believe he was being completely serious either. If he was, well, I don't care.

His job as an NBA player: Play hard on the court and maximize your talents. That's it. What he says off the court is his business.

[JSD]

In your opinion why is he or isn't he an idiot?

How am I supposed to know? I don't know him personally. Something getting lost in all of this is that Howard was at a charity event for a good cause. Who cares what he says into a cell phone camera? He wasn't hurting anybody nor was he saying anything malicious.

Do I agree with his comments? No. Is he being a hypocrite by making tacitly trashing the country he lives in while making millions? Sure, but I don't believe he was being completely serious either. If he was, well, I don't care.

His job as an NBA player: Play hard on the court and maximize your talents. That's it. What he says off the court is his business.

You are being ignorant if you believe this will not effect his stock as a player. He is creating media attention with his actions that offers a distraction to his team. Dirk, Kidd and others will be asked questions about this for the entire season... Josh Howard has now made national news on two separate occasions for not "what he's done on the court".

I think you are missing up your opinion with the reality of the situation...

If he was on the Patriots with his track record he would have been released for this. Why? Why would Bill Belichick have released him if "playing hard" was all that mattered?

[JSD]

Meh.  It's a 12 second clip out of context of Josh Howard messing around with his friends.  I'll give him a pass.

To me, it didn't sound like that was a reflection of his actual personality.  The tone of his voice (and the laughter from his friends) gave me the perception that he was just briefly "playing some character" to joke around with his friends.  Someone turned on a cell phone cam and he decided to say something ridiculous to crack his friends up.  That kind of humor just reminds me of one of Dave Chappelle's characters.   

If you took the worst 12 random seconds you could find in any conversation I have with my friends and posted it on youtube, I'm pretty sure we'd come across as massively racist bigot flag burners... or... gay for each other.  Depending on which conversation you happened to bop in on and what kind of sarcastic absurd ridiculousness we were spewing at each other. 

TP, You summed this up perfectly my friend and I 100% agree.

The problem is he needs to be more aware in public... The media is vicious.

[Redz]

It's like making Jesus jokes out loud at a church sermon or something.

Really though? When you are at church, you have chosen to go to that sermon and are presumably religious. I'm as patriotic as the next guy and I don't have a choice whether the national anthem is played at every sporting event I'm at or not.

How is the playing of the National Anthem at a sporting event any less of an expected happening than hearing a sermon at church?  You're comparing the choice to "go" to an event against the choice of what's presented at the other event.  It's an uneven comparison.  You could compare the choice of going to church vs the choice of going to a sporting event, or the choice of hearing a sermon vs the choice of hearing the National Anthem, and that would be even circumstances.  In either case you would have made a choice to go to an event where you could pretty well expect to hear the National Anthem or a sermon, as the case may be, and be prepared to behave appropriately.

OK< my brain's starting to hurt...I meant the statement you highlighted in terms of being an inappropriate time and place to crack a joke.

Is the concept of showing some respect appropriate to the moment such a ridiculous thing to ask or expect?

There aren't a whole lot of times when we're actually asked to stop and show a little bit of respect.  The National Anthem is one of them.

[nickagneta]

I think he's an idiot because by saying stuff like that he doesn't respect the National Anthem because he is black, he's costing himself money. Who in their right mind is going to hire him to peddle anything for them if his image is that of a disrespectful, anti-American loudmouth. If I was his agent, I'd kill him.

I think by saying stuff like that he does a great disservice to himself because it will definitely limit any earning potential he has after basketball. That is for sure. But maybe after making over a hundred million things like that aren't important to him any more.

If he in fact feels the way he does, which I'm not sure I can gauge by watching that video, well, then I guess I don't like him much and have little respect for the man. He does have the right to his own feelings.

As an aside I really don't like when people stereotype entire races with comments of that ilk.

[zerophase]

i must say, this guy is pathetic. however, espn's analyst say that this is enough to trade him because he is "unpatriotic." i don't think so. look how ron artest still has a good career.

[soap07]

You are being ignorant if you believe this will not effect his stock as a player. He is creating media attention with his actions that offers a distraction to his team. Dirk, Kidd and others will be asked questions about this for the entire season... Josh Howard has now made national news on two separate occasions for not "what he's done on the court".

I think you are missing up your opinion with the reality of the situation...

If he was on the Patriots with his track record he would have been released for this. Why? Why would Bill Belichick have released him if "playing hard" was all that mattered?


I'm not sure this is going to affect his stock as a player. First, the discussion whether it will or won't is irrelevant, the discussion is whether it should or not. IMO, it doesn't. If he plays hard and doesn't hurt anybody off the court, that's all that should matter.

Really? Dirk and Kidd will get asked about this for a whole season? I think you're reaching a bit there. On top of that, I'd rather have Howard than the abusive Jason Kidd. Has Kidd's career gone off the rails because of his off the court troubles? If anything, because he plays hard on the court, it is largely ignored.



If he was on the Patriots with his track record he would have been released for this. Why? Why would Bill Belichick have released him if "playing hard" was all that mattered?

Aside from the fact that this is an off-the-wall hypothetical, how do you know that Howard would be cut by Belichek? Second of all, the Pats seemed to have no problem taking on a "bad character" guy like Moss and it worked out fine.

[soap07]

I think he's an idiot because by saying stuff like that he doesn't respect the National Anthem because he is black, he's costing himself money. Who in their right mind is going to hire him to peddle anything for them if his image is that of a disrespectful, anti-American loudmouth. If I was his agent, I'd kill him.

100% agree. TP for you.

[soap07]

It's like making Jesus jokes out loud at a church sermon or something.

Really though? When you are at church, you have chosen to go to that sermon and are presumably religious. I'm as patriotic as the next guy and I don't have a choice whether the national anthem is played at every sporting event I'm at or not.

How is the playing of the National Anthem at a sporting event any less of an expected happening than hearing a sermon at church?  You're comparing the choice to "go" to an event against the choice of what's presented at the other event.  It's an uneven comparison.  You could compare the choice of going to church vs the choice of going to a sporting event, or the choice of hearing a sermon vs the choice of hearing the National Anthem, and that would be even circumstances.  In either case you would have made a choice to go to an event where you could pretty well expect to hear the National Anthem or a sermon, as the case may be, and be prepared to behave appropriately.

OK< my brain's starting to hurt...I meant the statement you highlighted in terms of being an inappropriate time and place to crack a joke.

Is the concept of showing some respect appropriate to the moment such a ridiculous thing to ask or expect?

There aren't a whole lot of times when we're actually asked to stop and show a little bit of respect.  The National Anthem is one of them.

I understand what you mean, I think we agree here. I will however say (I don't know if this is politics or not, I apologize if so), I think the national anthem at every game is a bit much, but I suppose it's just me.

[Celtsfan33/34]

If Mike Bibby thought we let him hear it after talking about us, wait til Josh Howard comes to town.  Disrespecting the National Anthem like that=disrespecting everyone that died sticking up for the flag and what it stands for.  I hope he blows his knees out and can never play basketball ever again, and then is audited by the IRS and loses every penny he has.  What a jerk.

[shookones99]

If Mike Bibby thought we let him hear it after talking about us, wait til Josh Howard comes to town.  Disrespecting the National Anthem like that=disrespecting everyone that died sticking up for the flag and what it stands for.  I hope he blows his knees out and can never play basketball ever again, and then is audited by the IRS and loses every penny he has.  What a jerk.

whoa..... you need to chill

[Celtsfan33/34]

If Mike Bibby thought we let him hear it after talking about us, wait til Josh Howard comes to town.  Disrespecting the National Anthem like that=disrespecting everyone that died sticking up for the flag and what it stands for.  I hope he blows his knees out and can never play basketball ever again, and then is audited by the IRS and loses every penny he has.  What a jerk.

whoa..... you need to chill

Why??  My father was in the military for 25 years.  My best friend is an AF pilot.  Two more close friends are in the Army and Navy.  I have no reason to show respect to someone who doesn't respect the country's colors and what they stand for.

[shookones99]

If Mike Bibby thought we let him hear it after talking about us, wait til Josh Howard comes to town.  Disrespecting the National Anthem like that=disrespecting everyone that died sticking up for the flag and what it stands for.  I hope he blows his knees out and can never play basketball ever again, and then is audited by the IRS and loses every penny he has.  What a jerk.

whoa..... you need to chill

Why??  My father was in the military for 25 years.  My best friend is an AF pilot.  Two more close friends are in the Army and Navy.  I have no reason to show respect to someone who doesn't respect the country's colors and what they stand for.

You don't have to have any respect for him.  A lot of people don't and that makes sense.  But hoping he blows out his knees and losses everything he has is insane.