Stephen Christopher Howard (born July 15, 1970) is an American former 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 (appro ...

player in the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

(NBA). He was born and raised in

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

, and played

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

for the DePaul Blue Demons from 1988 to 1992. He was an Academic All-American his junior and senior years. He was a team captain his senior year, and finished his career at DePaul in fifth place all time for scoring and rebounding. He also holds the school record for most free throw made in a career. He was undrafted in the

1992 NBA draft The 1992 NBA draft took place on June 24, 1992, at Memorial Coliseum in Portland, Oregon. The draft is considered to be one of the deepest in NBA history. The top three picks (Shaquille O'Neal, Alonzo Mourning, Christian Laettner) were conside ...

, but accepted an invitation to try out for the

Utah Jazz The Utah Jazz are an American professional basketball team based in Salt Lake City. The Jazz compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Northwest Division of the Western Conference. Since the 1991–92 season, the ...

. He made the roster and played power forward for the Jazz in 1992–1993, and then again in 1995 and 1998. He played for the

San Antonio Spurs The San Antonio Spurs are an American professional basketball team based in San Antonio. The Spurs compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southwest Division (NBA), Southwest Division of the Western Conference (NBA ...

in 1996–1997, and for the

Seattle SuperSonics The Seattle SuperSonics (commonly shortened to Sonics) were an American professional basketball team based in Seattle. The SuperSonics competed in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Western Division (1967–1970), and ...

in 1997–1998. He continued to play professionally overseas for the next ten years, competing in 12 different countries. He completed his professional career in 2008. During his time at Jazz, Howard was contacted by

Midway Games Midway Games Inc. (formerly Midway Manufacturing and Bally Midway, and commonly known simply as Midway) was an American video game company that existed from 1958 to 2010. Midway's franchises included ''Mortal Kombat'', ''Rampage (franchise), Ra ...

to be one of the models for the players in ''

NBA Jam ''NBA Jam'' is a List of basketball video games, basketball video game series based on the National Basketball Association (NBA). Initially developed as arcade games by Midway Games, Midway, the game found popularity with its photorealistic digi ...

''. He also appears as a secret player (the regular Jazz players in the game being

Karl Malone Karl Anthony Malone (born July 24, 1963) is an American former professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "the Mailman", he is considered one of the greatest power forwards in NBA history. Malone spen ...

and

John Stockton John Houston Stockton (born March 26, 1962) is an American former professional basketball player. Regarded as one of the great point guards of all time, he spent his entire NBA career (1984–2003) with the Utah Jazz, and the team made the pla ...

). During the 1998–99 NBA lockout, Howard opened a juice store with some friends in Northern Dallas called "Acappella", where people could get 25% off their final bill during weekends, if they sang 10 seconds from their favorite song aloud at the counter.XXL Basketball magazine, March 1999

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