Sorry can be a hard word to say, but not for Mavs' Howard

DALLAS — Dallas Mavericks forward Josh Howard called himself an idiot Monday, and that has to be considered a good start.

He had been an idiot lately. And he had explaining to do as a result.

"That's not me. That's not Josh Howard," he said at media day. "That was an idiot."

What I heard Monday was a guy manning up to his mistakes.

He answered every question, apologizing profusely, never deflecting blame, admitting words have power and vowing to work to make this right.

Howard had long since finished addressing what were basically variations of "What were you thinking? Were you out of your damn fool mind?" at his news conference. He was walking to have his picture taken in front of TNT's green screen, when I approached him.

I had been extremely critical of Josh, words like "idiot" and "repeat offender of stupid" may have been used, repeatedly, in this space. He stopped anyway.

All I really wanted to tell him was I had been impressed by what he had said. Apologizing is never easy and he had handled himself with aplomb.

"Thanks," he said. "I really meant what I said. And I really do intend to make this right."

My biggest question about Josh going into this season: Was he salvageable as a Maverick?

Because he did not just screw up. He really, really screwed up, amassing almost five months of missteps and public-relations disasters, starting with his decision to tell Michael Irvin and his listeners that, hell yeah, he smokes marijuana and so does everybody else in the NBA. On game day. In the playoffs.

They lost that game. And he opted to hand out fliers for his birthday party in what was a morose locker room, despite Avery Johnson's dictate of "no partying."

Then came his Summer of Idiocy, an arrest for going 94 mph in a drag race back in North Carolina, a blow-up with reporters who asked him about his problems at his charity event and his fine work at Allen Iverson's charity flag football game in July.

A refresher for anybody who has forgotten: The anthem is playing. Celebs are goofing for a homemade video by some rapper named Los. And in pops JHo, oh about a minute and a half in, to share this enlightening thought ...

"The Star-Spangled Banner's going on right now and I don't celebrate that (bleep). I'm black," he said.