Michigan Director of Player Development Jay Smith was one of the coaches who helped convince Juwan Howard to become the first piece of the Fab Five back in 1991, recruiting the Chicago standout like his job depended on it. The tables turned a few years ago when Howard called Smith and asked him to join his first staff at U-M.
Smith was on his way to a funeral, he recalled, when he got the call from his former student. After 30 minutes or so, Howard asked him to rejoin him in Ann Arbor to try to recapture some of the magic they enjoyed together in the early 1990s.
After a short conversation with ‘the boss’ (Smith’s wife, Tymi), he jumped in with both feet.
“Being back with Juwan is special, just because you kind of watched him grow into the person he is,” Smith said on Brian Boesch’s Defend the Block Podcast. “Even though he was with Miami in the league for 25 years, I still saw it from a distance.
“But I think I saw it from the grassroots when he first came in here as a young, fighting, south side Chicago player that had a tremendous work ethic and desire. I’ve said it … it’s an elite level. He competes; knows what competing is. That’s what always impressed me, and a work ethic that is off the chart.”
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Even to this day, Smith said, Howard acts like his next meal depends on his success.
“He really enjoys the grind of it, and he works like a poor assistant. That impresses me,” Smith said. “He’s really motivated by people and around people that really have a passion to work, to find it and keep digging into details. That drives me, even. That motivates me.
“The way he works, it’s real. It’s hard. Some people can’t go from the NBA to a college job. He’s definitely one that can. He has that same work ethic he brought to the court when we used to get up and bang on the court with blocking dummies … shoving him around, banging on him. He would embrace all that stuff.”
Smith has taken pleasure in watching him become the man he is, and now he gets to see it up close again. Howard's the man in charge and everyone knows it; at the same time, he doesn’t act like he’s above anybody in the building.
From the assistants to the support staff and even the players, everyone has input.
“We all have little pieces of it, but it’s his way,” Smith continued. “I think that’s what makes him really special.
“The No. 1 thing with Juwan is his genuine appreciation of people and his relationship that he builds with people throughout our building and everybody he meets. It’s real. Him going over and watching a softball game or baseball game at Michigan, watching football practice, it’s real. He’s not doing it for social media. He’s doing it because he wants to study how people react.
"He likes to build relationships, and anymore to me, part of the coaching gig is it’s about people and relationships — getting to their mindset where they’re comfortable, you’re comfortable and where you can coach them and coach them hard … because he can coach you hard.”
And that’s where the greatness lies, Smith said. He’s watching a guy who played for 19 years, coached in the NBA for six, played in college, went to a couple Final Fours and been down all the paths to which his players aspire, and the man isn’t taking any shortcuts. When there are one-on-one drills with the bigs, he’d doing it himself.
If there’s something he wants done, he gets on the court and shows his players how to do it.
“He is hands on,” Smith said. “He’s not standing and letting [assistants] coordinate anything. He is hands on dealing with our players. That’s what really separates him from lot of people – that he’s so hands on and honest, builds relationship where he can coach you hard because of the solid foundation of a relationship built over the course of time that helps him and our players.
“Our players believe in him and our staff. It’s special. It really is. It doesn’t come around like this all the time. It’s special.”
And he’s just getting started.
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