"With his former team one victory away from the championship that he was unable to capture five years ago, against the same team that kept him from winning the ultimate prize, Josh Howard said he could only have a cursory interest in the outcome in the NBA Finals.

He is rooting from afar for former Dallas Mavericks teammates Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Terry, Jason Kidd and Erick Dampier, now of the Miami Heat, more than a particular team. The wounds of his unceremonious departure haven't fully healed, but Howard is getting there.

He can actually watch the games, which is progress. Howard admits he would've had a difficult time handling the situation a year ago, just a few months the Mavericks had shipped him to the Washington Wizards.

"It might've hurt my feelings, cause I was still connected to the team," Howard said this week. "This year, it's like, it's a game. There's emotion, because I feel I could still be here, contributing with those guys. But now that I'm not here, I look at it as a fan."

When Nowitzki, Terry and Kidd were putting the finishing touches on a 112-103 Game 5 victory Thursday at American Airlines Center that gave them a three-games-to-two lead over the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals, Howard was in South Carolina, preparing to assist Wizards teammate Trevor Booker in the first fund-raising event for Booker's nonprofit organization."