The Houston Rockets are not the New England Patriots, Dwight Howard is not Tom Brady and the NBA is not the NFL. Thus, the big man isn’t supposed to be harshly reprimanded for his shady tactics during Houston’s loss to the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday night.
Here’s video of Paul Millsap’s reaction to the incident, courtesy of NBA.com:
https://twitter.com/danfavale/status/711399762344468481
Ananth Pandian of CBS Sports also relayed footage of Rockets interim head coach J.B. Bickerstaff trying to, um, let’s say, hide the evidence:
Rockets coach J. B. Bickerstaff getting rid of the evidence/Dwight Howard's Stickum https://t.co/eKoFUmCIQ0
— AP (@Ananth_Pandian) March 20, 2016
Oh, Rockets.
This, apparently, isn’t considered a big deal. The 30-year-old Dwight Howard isn’t, according to The Vertical’s Chris Mannix, expected to receive a stark punishment for his antics:
The Howard situation has been exacerbated by the Rockets’ immediate reaction to it. When McCutchen approached the Rockets’ bench on Saturday, Houston coach J.B. Bickerstaff appeared to move in front of the can in an attempt to block it from McCutchen’s view. Several league executives told The Vertical that if anyone should be punished it’s the Rockets, who knew the substance Howard was using was illegal – the can was covered in white tape – and then tried to cover it up.
Still, it’s unlikely the NBA issues a stiff punishment, if it issues any at all. The league could fine the Rockets and Howard; it could suspend Howard for a game. More likely, the NBA will circulate a memo reminding teams that Stickum-like substances are against the rules and players using them will be subject to future punishment.
To the best of my understanding, Stickum would help Dwight Howard grab a better grip on the ball. But if he’s been using it all the time, as he claimed after the fact, it’s bizarre that this is the first we’ve heard of it.
Equally bizarre is Howard’s use of it at all. Mannix says plenty of NBA players use approved substances to get a better grip on the ball, so why wouldn’t Howard just follow their lead? These tactics, whether they work or not, don’t offer huge advantages in the first place, giving Howard little incentive to deliberately break the rules every single game for god only knows how many years.
That probably explains the NBA’s purported lukewarm reaction to the situation. The Rockets’ handling of the debacle was, it seems, worse than the actual “crime.” Howard should walk away from this basically unscathed.
If he gets caught doing something pointless and stupid like this again, well, that’ll be a different story.
