Juwan Howard

One of their residences was a three-bedroom apartment on 69th Street on the South Side of Chicago.

As he blossomed under his grandmother's influence and discipline, he became her "pride and joy".

Howard went to Chicago Vocational Career Academy, where he went on to play three seasons of varsity basketball.

Vocational had an unheated gym and no locker rooms, which required that the team dress for games in a history classroom.

Juwan Antonio Howard (born February 7, 1973) is an American former professional basketball player and current head coach of the Michigan Wolverines men's team.

The summer after his sophomore year, the 6 ft center attended the Nike Academic Betterment and Career Development (ABCD) camp, which was held annually in Princeton, New Jersey, during the late 1980s.

At the start of his sophomore year in 1988, Howard was 15 years old and already expected to be a coveted blue chip recruit in 1991.

He was regarded as one of the best sophomore basketball players in the Chicago metropolitan area.

He scored 26 points in a Chicago Public High School League quarterfinal loss against a Deon Thomas-led Simeon Career Academy team.

Vocational ended the year with a 23–7 record.

Howard was a second-team selection and the only sophomore named to the league coaches' 20-man 1988–89 All-Public League team.

Although many of the Wolverines' accomplishments of the 1990s were vacated due to NCAA rules violations committed by four members of the program, Howard was not personally implicated in the scandal and his 1993–94 All-American season continues to be recognized.

After one season as an All-Rookie player and a second as an All-Star and an All-NBA performer, he became the first NBA player to sign a $100 million contract.

At Michigan he was part of the Fab Five recruiting class of 1991 that reached the finals of the NCAA tournament in 1992 and 1993.

Howard was an All-American center and an honors student at Chicago Vocational Career Academy.

Michigan was able to sign him early over numerous competing offers and then convince others in his recruiting class to join him.

The Fab Five, which included Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson, served as regular starters during their freshman and sophomore years for the 1991–92 and 1992–93 Wolverines.

Nonetheless, Howard went on to be named a 1991 All-American basketball player by Parade magazine and won McDonald's All American honors.

He was also chosen for the National Honor Society and served as Vocational's homecoming king.

During recruiting visits by college coaches such as Illinois' Lou Henson, DePaul's Joey Meyer and Michigan's Steve Fisher, Jannie Mae Howard did most of the questioning.

A one-time All-Star and one-time All-NBA power forward, he began his NBA career as the fifth overall pick in the 1994 NBA draft, selected by the Washington Bullets.

Before he was drafted, he starred as an All-American on the Michigan Wolverines men's basketball team.

In 2010, he signed with the Miami Heat and went on to make his first career NBA Finals appearance.

He remained with the Heat the following season and won his first NBA championship during the 2012 NBA Finals.

He returned to the Heat for part of the following season, and won a second championship.

After retiring as a player in 2013, he remained with the Heat organization as an assistant coach for the next six seasons, before accepting the head coaching position at Michigan in 2019.

She had four daughters by her 19th birthday, including Howard's mother Helena.

Helena was an employee at a Chicago restaurant when she became pregnant with Juwan.

Howard's father, Leroy Watson, had just returned from the Army to a phone company job in Chicago.

The two married quickly once they realized Helena was pregnant.

For Howard's first week of life, his high school junior mother kept him in a drawer at Jannie Mae's house.

Helena, who was 17 years old, did not want to be restricted or burdened raising her child, so Jannie Mae adopted him.

His biological father, Leroy Watson Jr., wanted to name him Leroy Watson, III, but his grandmother rejected the suggestion, insisting on Juwan Antonio Howard.

Although his mother visited on occasion as he was growing up, his grandmother raised him, along with two cousins.

Howard has no siblings and is not close to his biological parents; his grandmother was the primary influence in his life.

He moved with her to several low-income Chicago South Side projects; she kept him out of trouble and away from gangs as he was growing up.

Howard earned numerous awards for his performance as a coach in the 2020–21 season, including AP National Coach of the Year and Big Ten Coach of the Year.

Howard became the second Michigan basketball coach to earn AP National Coach of the Year honors.

Howard also became the first coach to earn a No.1 seed as both a player and coach, after the Wolverines secured a No.1 seed in the 2021 NCAA Tournament.

Howard's grandmother, Jannie Mae Howard, was the daughter of sharecroppers from Belzoni, Mississippi.