Houston Rockets Roster Rumors: Dwight Howard Caught Using Stickum Spray, Admits to Have Previously Used It
Dwight Howard is finding it difficult to avoid controversies this season. After news that he and fellow superstar James Harden were the reason why former head coach Kevin McHale was fired, he almost got traded before the Feb.18 deadline when the Rockets offered him to literally every team in the league. And now, he's been accused of using a banned substance and was in fact caught using it in an actual game.
No, we're not talking about performance-enhancing drugs or something like that. In Saturday night's 109-97 loss to the Atlanta Hawks, game officials changed a game ball after Hawks guard Paul Millsap felt a sticky substance when he was about to take the second of two free throws. After making the first, Howard came into the game and did his usual stuff by grabbing the ball from the referee. When Millsap got it to take his second free throw that was when he felt there was something different with the ball.
In an interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, he said it felt like super glue. "I've never felt the ball like that, ever," the power forward said. "I couldn't get it off my hands, it was the weirdest thing ever."
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When he complained about it to the officials, one of the referees, Monty McCutchen took his time figuring out where it came from while issuing a warning to both benches. It was probably him who realized it was Stickum because he was quoted saying, "Stickum is illegal in the NBA."
According to the LA Times, Howard applied the substance using a spray can that was concealed in athletic tape. However, he said after the game that he has been using the substance on his hands for five years and seemed to be genuinely innocent that it was illegal. The league isn't expected to penalize the former All-Star center, but this incident is an eye opener for every team in the league.
