Bullets Welcome Back All-Star Howard; Riley Spouts Opinion

Juwan Howard’s basketball odyssey ended Monday at the USAir Arena, where the All-Star forward was the focal point of a news conference that two weeks earlier seemed like an impossibility.

Howard played two years with the Washington Bullets before becoming a free agent following the 1995-96 season. He signed a seven-year, $100.8 million contract with Miami on July 13, and days later donned a Heat cap during a news conference.

But the NBA ruled that Miami exceeded the salary cap in signing Howard and voided the deal on Aug. 1. Five days later, the league cleared the way for Howard to re-sign with the Bullets.

“This is where my heart has always been. It was sad to leave a place like this,” Howard said.

Meanwhile, Miami coach Pat Riley, suggesting a vendetta against the Heat, accused the NBA of breaking its own rules in allowing Howard to return to the Bullets.

“We did not forget how to add. The only thing we miscalculated was somebody’s animus for us.

“… The day that Juwan Howard signed a contract with the Washington Bullets is the day I hit a new low in my 30 years in the NBA,” Riley said.