Howard told his wife, Jenine, that it was no big deal. He tried to believe that, too, but the day after his MRI, Howard learned that blood clots were found in his lungs and an unruptured aneurysm was discovered in his aorta. The blood clots, he says, were saving his life. Howard was placed on medications and waited 14 weeks for the surgery, thinking every day that the aneurysm might burst. “I was scared,” Howard says. “But I never admitted that. I didn’t show it in front of my wife or my family, and I never showed it in front of my staff.” -via The Athletic / April 4, 2024

Howard’s surgery was canceled and he declined to reschedule it in-season, against doctors’ recommendations and to Jenine’s displeasure. The surgery is scheduled for April 19. Doctors never advised Howard to take off the entire 2023-24 season, but implored him not to come back early. He did precisely that. “You can allow your competitiveness and take control over, you know, what you know in your heart,” Howard says. “If I could go back and do it all over again, I would’ve taken time off to really get help. I should’ve listened more to the doctors and my wife. There were days that I wouldn’t get any sleep and could barely get out of bed, but I’d go in there and try to act like I was fine.” -via The Athletic / April 4, 2024

Howard was told by Manuel to enter an anger management program during a five-game suspension. Howard agreed and met with a counselor. “After two sessions, she told me, ‘You don’t need anger management,’” he says. “Seriously. I wouldn’t bullsh— you.” Howard says he is not a violent person, but understands why perceptions around him changed severely after Wisconsin. “It hurt me in a lot of ways,” he says. “I know that’s part of the ‘angry Black man’ perception that’s out there. It left people with a perception that anything I do — whether it’s get a technical, which, a lot of coaches get technicals, or the situation with Jon, where you hear his side of it and his lawyer’s side of it — anything I’m involved in, it’s Juwan who started it.” -via The Athletic / April 4, 2024