The quiet, low-key former Butler basketball star has avoided new technology enough. Wednesday afternoon, Matt Howard joined the twitterverse, most likely to show of his personality in hopes of joining an NBA roster.
On the same day, Howard announced that he signed with an agent at Buddy Baker’s Exclusive Sports Group.
The 6-foot-8, 230 pound forward is training hard at St. Vincent Sports Performance on the northwest side of Indianapolis. That is the same training ground, directed by Ralph Reiff, as Mike Conley, Greg Oden, Carl Landry, Gary Brackett and more.
Howard’s twitter account will be fun to watch. He is a very humble young man who works his butt off everyday. Growing up in Connersville, Indiana, he had to work for everything. Some have even argued that the recent Butler success was not due to the Butler way, but ‘the Matt Howard Way.’
Matt Howard is a guy that didn’t get new socks because his current ones were satisfactory.
“I overuse things,” Howard said during the Final Four. “Again, like I’m saying, I’m low-maintenance, is how people describe me, and that’s true. I get ridiculed about the knee brace. Obviously it’s not in perfect condition. The socks are not tight to my leg. They call ‘em the floppy socks and turtleneck socks. I think they’re jealous, personally.”
Howard recently got text messaging, doesn’t have a smart phone but he is just fine.
He had over 700 followers before posting his first tweet. After five hours, he already tallied 1,000 followers – which is frustrating for someone like me who has been tweeting for over two years and as of Thursday as 612 followers. As of mid-day Thursday, Matt Howard had over 1,700 followers.
His first public tweet was a shout-out to the two groups he began to work with.
“Off to a great start today in my ambitions to play ball professionally. Signed with Exclusive Sports Group and begin training with Ralph Reiff.”
Keep tabs on this guy—I expect him to make an NBA roster because he is a smart, low-key player who will work his butt of and make those around him better. He will certainly be missed at Butler.
Follow Scott Agness on Twitter: @ScottAgness