Dallas Wings starter Natasha Howard just keeps getting better
DAVID TAFFET | Senior Staff Writer
taffet@dallasvoice.com
In last week’s game against the Phoenix Mercury, Dallas Wings starter Natasha Howard scored a career-high 36 points and grabbed a game-best 11 rebounds.
Howard is in her second season with the Wings and her 10th in the WNBA. In the league’s off-season, she’s played for Fenerbahçe, a Turkish team in the EuroLeague Women, Turkey’s most successful professional team domestically and internationally. In the 2023-24 season, they won all 35 of their games.
Howard has worked hard to get where she is. She began playing basketball at the age of 10, noting that “My uncle saw something in me. He put the ball in my hand.”
He kept working with her, and, she said, “I started loving it slowly.”
Because there wasn’t a girls’ team in her school in Toledo, Ohio, Howard ended up playing with the boys. But she wasn’t alone. There was one other girl on the team with her.
She said her high school coach still calls her “and asks if I can talk to some of his players.” She said she loves working with members of his team, talking to them about what it takes to play college and professional basketball.
Howard talks lovingly about her mom, who worked two jobs to provide for four children.
“We grew up poor,” the WNBA star said. “I didn’t have a lot of things other kids had. She made me push to become what I want to be. Mom taught me don’t settle.”
While in high school, Howard came out. She said, “My mother knew,” but she wanted her to say it, so she told her mom she liked girls, and that honesty brought them closer together.
Currently, Howard’s engaged to her partner Jac’eil. They’re getting married next year, Howard said, but they haven’t made exact plans. While she said it would be an overseas wedding, she doesn’t know where it will be or exactly when.
Playing for a team in another country where she didn’t speak the language was difficult, especially last year while Britney Griner was going through her ordeal in Russia. But, Howard said, “This is the way I feed my family.” Then she explained that the coaching is in English with bilingual coaches. And she enjoys playing for Fenerbahçe.
“Fans overseas, they love their sports,” she said. “Especially women’s sports — basketball and soccer. They’re more dedicated to women’s sports than over here.”
And playing well in a team sport must be more difficult after being traded several times. Did that affect her game? Howard disagreed with the idea that it was hard to adapt to a new team.
“It’s not that hard for me to adjust on a team,” she said. She has played with other WNBA players from various teams overseas, so, she said, “I feel I’ve been playing with them for years.”
And what about rookie Caitlin Clark who seems to have been grabbing all the headlines? A Wings preseason game in Arlington sold out — the first time a Wings game has sold out — with an appearance by Clark. But Howard disagrees that it’s just Clark.
“There are others — a lot of good players” she said. “The whole 2024 class helped the league grow.”
And that’s true, because the Wings have continued to sell out games, not just games where Clark and her team have been in Dallas. But that’s the way Howard approaches the game. An individual player may score a lot of baskets, but a team only wins when its members work together.
On Saturday, July 13, the Wings play their Pride game.
“The Pride game is going to be fun,” Howard said. “We love supporting our LGBTQ fans.”
Pam Gerber is a board member of the Dallas Wings Foundation, the charitable arm of the Dallas WNBA franchise. She explained that because of the team’s travel schedule and because so much was going on in the area in June, the team thought it would have a more successful Pride event if they held it in July.
“The LGBTQ community has flocked to Wings games since the team moved to Arlington,” Gerber said.
And as more members of the team have come out in recent years, the team and the foundation have become more visible participating in events in the LGBTQ community. Gerber said they hosted an event at Sue Ellen’s in June and were part of the flag raising at Dallas City Hall that kicked off Pride Month.
Gerber added that she’s hoping for a large community turn out for the Pride game, because, more than she’s seen anywhere else, “the LGBTQ community is just part of the team’s DNA.”
And Howard hopes to be part of the Dallas Wings into the future. She describes herself as a homebody, and said if she’s still in town for next season, it’ll be time to start looking for a house.
Howard said she’s excited about the 2026 season move to the Convention Center Arena in downtown Dallas that’s being refurbished for the team. The venue holds twice as many people as College Park Center where the Wings play in Arlington, and Howard hopes to introduce women’s basketball to many more fans.
How long can Howard keep playing?
“I’ve got another 10 years in me,” she said. “My body feels good. I’m staying healthy.” █