Rhyne Howard relaxes when she draws or paints. She has the canvas, paper, pens, and paint. There was no distraction. There was no basketball. There is no social media or outside noise. She puts herself in the living room of her apartment and opens the blinds to let in the sun.
She likes to illustrate cartoon characters like Bugs Bunny. Howard doesn't like to be told what to draw. She has never been put in a single box.
Blair Green said that she was just Rhyne. She is so unique in her own way.
Rhyne Howard, the artist, the person, is relatively unknown to those outside her inner circle, in part because of her reserved personality, in an era when athletes have more power than ever to showcase who they are and what matters to them. That reticence lies in stark contrast to her status as a women's basketball star, where she was picked No. 1 overall by the Atlanta Dream in last month's WNBA draft.
Since the day she arrived in Kentucky, fans, analysts and WNBA personnel have been impressed by her pro potential. Her quiet demeanor has led some to question her motor and passion for the game, even her character, in a way that Howard and those close to her feel is misguided.
Howard said last week that people think he is mean and full of himself. I care about people. I always try to put other people first.
Rhyne Howard, the potential franchise player the Dream traded up two spots to draft, will turn heads when she takes the floor for the first time on Saturday. Howard wants to show the world who she really is, and she feels she has something to prove. On her own terms.
Matthew Mitchell, the Kentucky head coach at the time, and his associate head coach, Kyra Elzy, knew they were getting a gifted basketball player when they recruited Howard out of Bradley Central High School in Cleveland, Tennessee. As striking as Howard was with the ball in her hands, she was subdued in just about every other way, not saying much or showing a lot of emotion aside from flashing her trademark grin.
It was almost like she didn't want to project her words, said Andraya Carter, who met Howard when she coached her at a high school basketball camp.
While she wouldn't talk much on recruiting visits with Elzy and Mitchell, Howard sometimes recorded them on her phone, and added funny caption: "when your friend tells you they can't go out."
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Elzy said that Howard was the type of player you only had to tell things once for her to get. She knew that Howard would make noise during her time in Kentucky, even before she started her freshman campaign.
Mitchell said that it went from a very good player to a very special one.
Howard didn't make the cut as a McDonald's All-American her senior year of high school. Howard had a career-best 23.4 points per game and the first of back-to-back SEC Player of the Year awards in her sophomore season. She was named to the All-Star Five at the U19 World Cup and won the Most Valuable Player at the U18 Championship for USA Basketball.
It didn't take long for Howard to become a legend in the program, as she finished as the second all-time leading scorer behind Still. Her ability to play and defend 1 through 4 and score from all three levels, as well as her talent, made her a perfect fit for the WNBA.
She became a player with a target on her back after her sophomore season.
The noise surrounding her college career centered on what Howard hadn't accomplished. The 6 seed in the first round of the NCAA tournament lost to the 11th-seeded team. She was a finalist for national player of the year multiple times, as well as for the Cheryl Miller Award as the country's best small forward, but didn't win. She carried the program for four years, where she played alongside only one All-SEC first- or second-team selection.
"A lot of people are saying that I'll be a bust or that the W will humble me and stuff like that. I'm just going to keep working hard and see what happens, believe in myself." Rhyne Howard
Some fans doubted Howard's competitive spirit. She takes a break. When the game is on the line, she only turns it on. She is disinterested on the floor, and that is going to be the question around her, according to a WNBA GM. The decision of the Washington Mystics to trade away the top pick fed the narrative.
Mitchell said that it was all due to her being so quiet.
Even as the Dream face fairly low expectations for what is widely expected to be a rebuilding year, Lin Dunn, the interim general manager who previously coached Howard while serving in an advisory role at Kentucky, isn't concerned about Howard's motor.
She had to conserve her motor in order to play 40 minutes every game. She uses it when needed. She is exceptional when she is playing with better players. Rhyne is going to have a big impact on the league.
Elzy said that Howard felt nothing she did was good enough because of the noise and pressure. Howard was entering her senior year with a pro career around the corner.
Howard said that it was a lot of external that he was allowing to affect him.
Elzy and Howard met after Kentucky lost to Louisville in December. When Mitchell retired in 2020, Elzy wanted Howard to focus on having fun and playing free, and advised her staff that there wouldn't be any more talk about Howard's end game.
If we don't win another game, if we don't win another award, you have done enough. She needed to be freed at that time.
The new approach worked. Elzy said, "She went on a tear and was the Rhyne Howard that we had always known."
Howard wanted to assure her teammates that she was all-in at Kentucky even as she was in the NBA. Down to just six or seven players due to injury or discipline, the Cats had lost 10 of 13 games and were projected to miss the NCAA tournament.
Green recalled that Howard asked what more she could do for the team during a closed-door team meeting. Howard helped organize team-building activities, including group painting sessions, to bring the group together outside of basketball after they identified that they were not having fun. Sometimes, Howard was the one holding her teammates accountable, Elzy said.
Green said that when everything started changing for the season, not everyone wanted to be the leader. It is not fun. She really did that, and I was like, "You have to step up, you are the person that everyone looks to, you are the person that everyone is going to listen to."
The SEC tournament crown was the first for the Cats since 1982, and they secured their spot in the NCAA tournament by winning 10 straight games. Howard won her first championship in high school and college, as well as the tournament's Most Valuable Player.
Mitchell used to tell Howard that the best way to make sure she wasn't misunderstood was to know where she stood through her actions and how she carried herself.
Elzy said that she wanted the image of herself to be portrayed.
Rhyne Howard wants to be defined by more than her basketball skill, and she's letting the outside world in on that. She likes to browse through pins on the board board board board board board board board board board board board board board board board board board board board board board board board board board board board board board board board board board board board board board board board board board board board board board board board board board
Carter said there was so much depth to her.
Just a few weeks into her time in Atlanta, Howard has already stocked up on art supplies and has had her teammates commission drawings from her. One of the main characters from The Fairly OddParents was requested by a friend of the rookies, who was drafted by the Dream.
Carter said it was great for kids to be able to be a basketball player or an artist.
Howard is showing her new teammates who she is. Dream assistant coach Christie Sides said that she has been more engaging than a lot of rookies. When the team forms a circle during each practice, Howard runs around and is sure to dap up everyone from seasoned vet Kia Vaughn to fellow rookies.
She makes a point to talk to everyone on the team. Sides said that she is not that person who just sticks to herself. In the setting with the team, she is touching everybody, getting to know everybody, and building relationships with everybody.
Sides said that in the Dream's preseason game against the Washington Mystics last week, Howard's 15 points on eight shots were second-most on the team. Sides said Howard was a little gassed after her pre-game 10 minute individual workout that day, she is still adjusting to the demands of being a pro. Sides knows she will come back ready for more.
Howard said that he will have something to prove. I will keep working hard and see what happens.
She knows how to use the noise as fuel instead of her determination, now that she knows how to not let others have control over her. Rhyne Howard is more than just a basketball player, he is an artist, a jokester, a fan of SpongeBob and other cartoons, and a leader. Howard was measured in showing her sides to the world. The world was not fully patient in letting her do that on her own time.
Rhyne will open up with you if you just let her be Rhyne. I did not want her to be anyone else.
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