Markus Anthony Howard (born March 3, 1999) is an American professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player for

Saski Baskonia Club Deportivo Saski-Baskonia, S.A.D., commonly known as Saski Baskonia (), also known as Cazoo Baskonia for sponsorship reasons, is a professional basketball team that is based in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain. The team plays in the Liga ACB and the ...

of the Spanish

Liga ACB The Liga ACB, known as Liga Endesa for sponsorship reasons, is the top professional basketball division of the Spanish basketball league system. Administrated by the Asociación de Clubs de Baloncesto (ACB), Liga ACB is contested by 18 teams, wi ...

and the EuroLeague. He played

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

for the

Marquette Golden Eagles The Marquette Golden Eagles, formerly known as the Marquette Warriors, Blue and Gold, Gold, Hilltoppers, and Golden Avalanche (football only), are the athletic teams representing Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. They ...

, where he was a two-time All-American and led the nation in scoring in the 2019–20 season.

High school career

Howard began his high school career at Perry High School in

Gilbert, Arizona Gilbert is a town in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, located southeast of Phoenix within the city's metropolitan area. Incorporated on July 6, 1920, Gilbert was once known as the "Hay Shipping Capital of the World". It is the fifth-larg ...

. As a freshman, he started in the backcourt with his brother and averaged 23 points per game, leading his team to the state semifinals. He committed to

Arizona State Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...

following his freshman season. After a sophomore season where he averaged 32.4 points per game, Howard decommitted from Arizona State and reopened up his recruitment. For his junior season, Howard transferred to national basketball power

Findlay Prep Findlay Prep is a former high school basketball program located in Henderson, Nevada. The program was created in 2006 by local businessman Cliff Findlay, who owns several car dealerships in the Las Vegas area.Abramson, Mitch"Former Knick Jerome Wi ...

Henderson, Nevada Henderson is a city in Clark County, Nevada, United States, about southeast of downtown Las Vegas. It is the second largest city in Nevada, after Las Vegas, with an estimated population of 320,189 in 2019. The city is part of the Las Vegas Vall ...

. During his junior season at Findlay Prep, where he led the team in scoring, Howard announced that he would reclassify to the class of 2016 and signed with Marquette.

College career

As a freshman at Marquette University, Howard entered the starting lineup and averaged 13.2 points per game and led the country in three-point shooting at 54.7%. He was named to the 2017

Big East Conference The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference that competes in NCAA Division I in ten men's sports and twelve women's sports. Headquartered in New York City, the eleven full-member schools are primarily located in Northeast and M ...

All-Freshman team. As a sophomore, Howard became one of college basketball's top scorers. On the season, Howard averaged 20.4 points per game and was named second-team All-Big East. He also finished the season with the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

’s second-best

free throw percentage In basketball, free throws or foul shots are unopposed attempts to score points by shooting from behind the free-throw line (informally known as the foul line or the charity stripe), a line situated at the end of the restricted area. Free throws ...

(93.8%). Going into his junior season of 2018–19, Howard earned national preseason recognition, appearing on the watch lists for the

Wooden Award The John R. Wooden Award is an award given annually to the most outstanding men's and women's college basketball players. The program consists of the men's and women's Player of the Year awards, the Legends of Coaching award, and recognizing the ...

, the

Naismith Award Naismith Award is a basketball award named after James Naismith, and awarded by the Atlanta Tipoff Club. Naismith Awards include: * Naismith College Player of the Year (men's and women's; NCAA Division I basketball) * Naismith College Coach of the ...

and the

Bob Cousy Award The Bob Cousy Award presented by The College of the Holy Cross (or Bob Cousy Collegiate Point Guard of the Year Award) is an annual basketball award given by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame to the top men's collegiate point guard. ...

for top

point guard The point guard (PG), also called the one or the point, is one of the five Basketball positions, positions in a regulation basketball game. A point guard has perhaps the most specialized role of any position. Point guards are expected to run t ...

. Howard was also selected preseason first-team All-Big East. In Marquette's non-conference schedule, Howard recorded two 45-point games, against ranked teams

Kansas State Kansas State University (KSU, Kansas State, or K-State) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was opened as the state's land-grant college in 1863 and was the first public instit ...

and Buffalo. In the Buffalo win, Howard scored 40 of his total in the second half. He scored a career-high 53 points in an overtime win over Creighton on January 9, 2019, breaking a Big East single-game record. Howard became Marquette's all-time leading scorer when he contributed 38 points in an 88–53 victory against Loyola (Md.) in the team's season opener of his senior year. He was named Big East player of the week on November 11, 2019. On November 29, Howard scored 51 points in a 101–79 win over

USC USC most often refers to: * University of South Carolina, a public research university ** University of South Carolina System, the main university and its satellite campuses **South Carolina Gamecocks, the school athletic program * University of ...

. He became the third player to score 50 points in a game in three straight seasons, joining

Wayman Tisdale Wayman Lawrence Tisdale (June 9, 1964 – May 15, 2009) was an American professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and a smooth jazz bass guitarist. A three-time All American at the University of Oklahoma,

and

Pete Maravich Peter Press Maravich ( ; June 22, 1947 – January 5, 1988), known by his nickname Pistol Pete, was an American professional basketball player. Maravich was born in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, part of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area, and raised in ...

. In addition, since he scored 40 points in the previous match, he joined Maravich,

Johnny Neumann Carl John Neumann (September 11, 1950 – April 23, 2019), nicknamed "Johnny Reb", was an American professional basketball player and coach. At 6'6" and 200 pounds, he played at the shooting guard and small forward positions. High school and col ...

, and

Bob Pettit Robert Lee Pettit Jr. (born December 12, 1932) is an American former professional basketball player. He played 11 seasons in the NBA, all with the Milwaukee/St. Louis Hawks (1954–1965). In 1956, he became the first recipient of the NBA's Mo ...

as the only players in major conferences to score 40 points on back-to-back days. Howard sat out a game against

Jacksonville Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...

on December 4 with a concussion. On February 12, 2020, Howard scored 24 points and had five rebounds and two assists in a 72–71 loss to Villanova. He became the Big East's all-time leading scorer in league games, surpassing

Lawrence Moten Lawrence Edward Moten (born March 25, 1972) is an American retired professional basketball player. Moten attended Archbishop Carroll High School in Washington, D.C. and the New Hampton School in New Hampton, New Hampshire before playing his colle ...

's 1,405 points. At the conclusion of the regular season, Howard was unanimously selected to the First Team All-Big East. Howard averaged 27.8 points and 3.3 assists per game as a senior. During his time at Marquette University, Howard accumulated 2761 points.

Professional career

Denver Nuggets (2020–2022)

After going undrafted in the

2020 NBA draft The 2020 NBA draft was held on November 18, 2020. The draft was originally scheduled to be held at Barclays Center in Brooklyn on June 25, but due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it was instead conducted at ESPN's facilities in Bristol, Connecti ...

, Howard signed a two-way deal with the

Denver Nuggets The Denver Nuggets are an American professional basketball team based in Denver. The Nuggets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Northwest Division. The team was founded as the D ...

whose official announcement was released on November 30, 2020. On May 13, 2021, Howard scored a career-high 15 points in a 114–103 win over the

Minnesota Timberwolves The Minnesota Timberwolves are an American professional basketball team based in Minneapolis. The Timberwolves compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Northwest Division. Founded in 19 ...

. He re-signed with the Nuggets on a new two-way contract on August 15, 2021. Howard appeared in 31 games and had two 20-point performances during the 2021–22 season.

Cazoo Baskonia (2022–Present)

On July 17, 2022, the Spanish team, Cazoo Baskonia, has announced the signing of Howard into a 2-year deal. In October 2022, Howard became the eighth player ever to score 30 points or more in back-to-back games in the EuroLeague. He scored 33 points against KK Partizan on October 14, 2022, and 30 points against Crvena Zvezda on October 19, 2022.

National team career

Howard has represented the United States in

FIBA The International Basketball Federation (FIBA ; French: ) is an association of national organizations which governs the sport of basketball worldwide. Originally known as the (hence FIBA), in 1989 it dropped the word ''amateur'' from its na ...

play on two occasions. In 2015, he was a member of the gold medal-winning US team in the 2015 FIBA Americas Under-16 Championship. Howard then won a gold medal at the

2016 FIBA Under-17 World Championship The 2016 FIBA Under-17 World Championship (Spanish: 2016 FIBA Campeonato Mundial Sub-17) was the 4th edition of the FIBA Under-17 World Championship, the biennial international men's youth basketball championship contested by the U17 national team ...

in Zaragoza, Spain. In the U17 tournament, Howard averaged 11.9 points and 2.6 assists per game.

Career statistics

NBA

Regular season

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Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

, 37 , , 1 , , 5.5 , , .377 , , .277 , , .778 , , .6 , , .5 , , .1 , , .0 , , 2.8 , - , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;",

, 31 , , 0 , , 5.7 , , .386 , , .400 , , .870 , , .4 , , .2 , , .3 , , .0 , , 4.1 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 68 , , 1 , , 5.6 , , .382 , , .341 , , .844 , , .5 , , .4 , , .2 , , .0 , , 3.4

Playoffs

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, style="text-align:left;",

, 9 , , 0 , , 12.4 , , .405 , , .423 , , .500 , , .8 , , .4 , , .0 , , .1 , , 4.7

College

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2016–17 , style="text-align:left;", Marquette , 31 , , 27 , , 22.0 , , .506 , , .547 , , .889 , , 2.2 , , 2.3 , , .8 , , .1 , , 13.2 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2017–18 , style="text-align:left;", Marquette , 34 , , 31 , , 31.5 , , .464 , , .404 , , .938 , , 3.2 , , 2.8 , , 1.0 , , .1 , , 20.4 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2018–19 , style="text-align:left;", Marquette , 34 , , 34 , , 33.5 , , .420 , , .403 , , .890 , , 4.0 , , 3.9 , , 1.1 , , .0 , , 25.0 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2019–20 , style="text-align:left;", Marquette , 29 , , 29 , , 33.2 , , .422 , , .412 , , .847 , , 3.5 , , 3.3 , , .9 , , .0 , , style="background:#cfecec;" , 27.8* , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 128 , , 121 , , 30.1 , , .444 , , .427 , , .882 , , 3.2 , , 3.1 , , 1.0 , , .0 , , 21.6

Personal life

Howard's older brother Jordan Howard played college basketball for

Central Arkansas Central Arkansas, also known as the Little Rock metro, designated by the United States Office of Management and Budget as the Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway Metropolitan Statistical Area, is the most populous metro area in the U.S. state of ...

and was the 2018 Southland Conference Player of the Year. The brothers were teammates for one season at Perry High. He is of Puerto Rican descent. Howard is very public about his Christian faith. Howard explained the reason why he wears number 0 by saying, “First and foremost, I’m a Christian before anything else. I’m a son

f God F, or f, is the sixth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ef'' (pronounced ), and the plural is ''efs''. His ...

so I want to be sure that my number meant something and it represented something. It truly represents that without my relationship with Christ, I feel like I am not the person that I’m meant to be.“ In 2018, Howard started a

Fellowship of Christian Athletes The Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) is an international non-profit Christian sports ministry founded in 1954 and based in Kansas City, Missouri. It has staff offices located throughout the United States and abroad. History FCA was found ...

club at Marquette.

References

External links

Marquette Golden Eagles bioUSA Basketball bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Howard, Markus 1999 births Living people All-American college men's basketball players American men's basketball players American expatriate basketball people in Spain American sportspeople of Puerto Rican descent Basketball players from Arizona Basketball players from New Jersey Denver Nuggets players Findlay Prep alumni Grand Rapids Gold players Liga ACB players Marquette Golden Eagles men's basketball players Sportspeople from Morristown, New Jersey Saski Baskonia players Shooting guards Sportspeople from Chandler, Arizona Undrafted National Basketball Association players