As a rookie, McDyess made the All-Rookie Team by averaging a solid 13.4 points per game on 48.5% shooting with 7.5 rebounds and 1.0 assists per game. After averaging a double-double in his sophomore season, he declared early for the 1995 NBA Draft and was selected second overall by the Los Angeles Clippers, but never suited up for the team instead, he was dealt before the start of the 1995-1996 season with Randy Woods to the Nuggets for Rodney Rogers and a first-round draft pick (later used on Brent Barry). Meanwhile, growing up in Mississippi, McDyess was likewise one of the nation’s top high school basketball players and stayed nearby at the University of Alabama. Despite missing the early part of his rookie season for contract reasons, Howard was reunited in Washington with Webber and posted averages of 17.0 points (48.9% shooting), a career-best 8.4 rebounds, and 2.5 assists per game to make the All-Rookie Team. After Webber, who had been the alpha dog as a freshman and sophomore, left for the NBA, Howard blossomed individually and earned First Team All-Big Ten and Third Team All-American honors as a junior in 1994, thus prompting him to declare early for the 1994 NBA Draft, where he was selected fifth overall by the then-Bullets franchise nevertheless, Howard fulfilled a promise to his grandmother to graduate from college. In his first two seasons at Michigan, the Wolverines made it to the national championship game twice, but lost both times, most infamously due to Webber’s phantom timeout call the second time around vs. As a coveted recruit, he ultimately chose to attend the University of Michigan as part of the fabled “Fab Five” that also included Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, Jimmy King, and Ray Jackson. Who was better – Juwan Howard or Antonio McDyess? The Beginningįrom high school All-Americans to college basketball stars, Howard and McDyess each were top-five lottery draft picks in their respective classes and made an immediate impact at the NBA level.īorn to a teenage mother, Howard was raised by his maternal grandmother in Chicago and blossomed as a basketball player, earning both Parade and McDonald’s All-American honors as a senior. While neither player quite reached the expected superstardom for one reason or another, both nevertheless had long and productive careers in the Association given their comparable playing positions and similar career trajectories across overlapping careers, it makes sense to ask the question: In the late 1990s, two of the brightest up-and-coming young big men in the NBA were Juwan Howard of the Washington Bullets/Wizards and Antonio McDyess of the Denver Nuggets both averaged 20+ points per game and were All-NBA selections by the age of 25, leading many basketball pundits to anoint them as future superstars in the post-Michael Jordan era.
HEAD TO HEAD BASKETBALL REFERENCE FREE
flickr user Keith Allison, 20061210 Juwan Howard, CC BY-SA 2.0 Keith Allison, Mcdyess free throw, CC BY-SA 2.0 We may receive a commission for purchases made through these links. This site contains affiliate links to products.
0 kommentar(er)
