LOL, I can't believe he did this in college as well. On the replay, it did look like he was just communicating with Avery when he made the signal for the timeout though.
Josh Howard was patient with my line of postgame questioning for about 30 or 40 seconds, and then he sort of lost it.
"What am I saying to you right now, dog? Please, don't come off on me right now because I'm going to come off on you, and I'm not in a great mood right now. Get out of my face, man. Get out of my face."
I was never in Howard's face, I was merely calmly passing along to him the explanation that referee Joey Crawford had given to my colleague, ESPN.com's Marc Stein, about the disputed timeout call with 1.9 seconds left that kept the Mavericks from inbounding from midcourt for a final shot.
The Mavericks were livid when their final timeout was called, coach Avery Johnson running onto the court and protesting vehemently that no timeout had been asked for. But Crawford told Stein (who interviewed him as the designated pool reporter): "Josh Howard goes to Joe DeRosa and not only once, but twice, asks for a timeout. Forced to call it, simple as that."
Armed with that quote, I approached Howard in the locker room to see what he had to say about it.
The transcript, pre-meltdown:
ESPN.com: "Josh, Joey Crawford said you called timeout twice. Is that true?"
Howard: "No. I'm going to leave it at that. No."
ESPN.com: "A pool reporter went in there, and Joey said you called timeout not once, but twice, and we had no choice but to give them the timeout."
Howard: "If that's what he's saying, that's what he's saying. I know I didn't call a timeout twice. I didn't even say nothing to anyone. I just made a sign like that." [Howard places his hands in the shape of a 'T']
ESPN.com: "Were you looking over at the bench when you did that?
Howard: "I was looking straight at coach."
ESPN.com: "Never made eye contact with the ref?"
Howard: "Never. Like for real, never."
So ended the civil part of our dialogue, and Howard -- as you can see above -- clearly wasn't in the mood to discuss it further.
Needless to say, I wasn't about to follow up with a question about his free-throw showing earlier in overtime or his history of making a mistake with a late timeout, although those would have been legitimate things to ask. (In college, on Feb. 24, 2002, Howard was with Wake Forest when he called a timeout he didn't have with 1.3 seconds left against Maryland. That's a technical foul, and Juan Dixon made 1-of-2 free throws to win the game.)
"What am I saying to you right now, dog? Please, don't come off on me right now because I'm going to come off on you, and I'm not in a great mood right now. Get out of my face, man. Get out of my face."
I was never in Howard's face, I was merely calmly passing along to him the explanation that referee Joey Crawford had given to my colleague, ESPN.com's Marc Stein, about the disputed timeout call with 1.9 seconds left that kept the Mavericks from inbounding from midcourt for a final shot.
The Mavericks were livid when their final timeout was called, coach Avery Johnson running onto the court and protesting vehemently that no timeout had been asked for. But Crawford told Stein (who interviewed him as the designated pool reporter): "Josh Howard goes to Joe DeRosa and not only once, but twice, asks for a timeout. Forced to call it, simple as that."
Armed with that quote, I approached Howard in the locker room to see what he had to say about it.
The transcript, pre-meltdown:
ESPN.com: "Josh, Joey Crawford said you called timeout twice. Is that true?"
Howard: "No. I'm going to leave it at that. No."
ESPN.com: "A pool reporter went in there, and Joey said you called timeout not once, but twice, and we had no choice but to give them the timeout."
Howard: "If that's what he's saying, that's what he's saying. I know I didn't call a timeout twice. I didn't even say nothing to anyone. I just made a sign like that." [Howard places his hands in the shape of a 'T']
ESPN.com: "Were you looking over at the bench when you did that?
Howard: "I was looking straight at coach."
ESPN.com: "Never made eye contact with the ref?"
Howard: "Never. Like for real, never."
So ended the civil part of our dialogue, and Howard -- as you can see above -- clearly wasn't in the mood to discuss it further.
Needless to say, I wasn't about to follow up with a question about his free-throw showing earlier in overtime or his history of making a mistake with a late timeout, although those would have been legitimate things to ask. (In college, on Feb. 24, 2002, Howard was with Wake Forest when he called a timeout he didn't have with 1.3 seconds left against Maryland. That's a technical foul, and Juan Dixon made 1-of-2 free throws to win the game.)
