When Howard University guard Destiny Howell entered the women’s locker room to grab her phone after an October practice, a routine stop before receiving treatment for the ACL injury that sidelined her for the entire 2023-2024 season, bad news awaited.

Scrolling through Instagram, the Howard graduate student learned her childhood friend Jaden Sinclair had died. For Howell, it was the second death of someone close to her in three months and the third in the past year and a half: Her Uncle Herbie passed away from cancer in July, and her Aunt “Cookie” died from cardiac arrest in June 2023.

Though she scored 22 points on Monday in Howard’s season-opening win over Florida A&M, Howell’s first regular-season game since March 2023, dealing with loss – from her loved ones’ deaths to her hopes for last season – has been a constant theme for the 2022-23 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Player of the Year. 

As a sophomore, Howell was a key piece in Howard’s 2022 NCAA tournament appearance, and as a junior, she led the MEAC in scoring, averaging 16.8 points per game. The ACL injury, which she suffered in October 2023, initially depressed the student-athlete, not only because it derailed her senior season but because she had dedicated the campaign to her aunt Carmen “Cheese” Fletcher, aka Aunt Cookie. In 1978, Fletcher became the first Puerto Rican-Black player in St. John’s University women’s basketball history to play in the Women’s Professional Basketball League, the first professional basketball league for women in the United States.  

“She was my role model in basketball,” Howell told Andscape. “Just how I tried to navigate my life through basketball, she was somebody who could fully relate and empathize with me in that area and nobody else in my family could. It was tough to deal with, and all I had in my mind was I would dedicate that season to her.

“I was going to do everything she told me to do that season, and to have that season completely taken away from me was just an even bigger blow.”

In the wake of her aunt’s death and the ACL injury, the New York native often hoarded her emotions.

“I feel like I couldn’t fully feel those feelings because I was so caught up in trying to be OK for everybody else, trying to show everybody else, ‘No, it’s OK. You don’t have to feel that sorry for me. I don’t want to feel your pity on top of mine,’” Howell said. “And once I realized that I was trying to really push my feelings away and not take it head on, I realized I was messed up. I was seriously not in a good head space about what was going on with my injury and just not being able to play basketball.”

Howell began therapy on Oct. 30 last year, two days after she tore her ACL, and began processing all those feelings. 

“You got to get up and get back to where you want to be, so let’s not be sad for too long,” Howell said. “I think that once I got over that hump, everything was a lot easier down my road to recovery.”

Howell did knee exercises every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, while Tuesdays and Thursdays were reserved for extra conditioning and lifting.  

“When we first started doing rehab, it was super hard,” Howell said. “Just building that mind-body connection back with your leg, with your quad, and not being able to lift your leg, and wondering why you can’t do something so simple bothers you. It’s a frustrating thing to go through.”

As she continued rehab and therapy, her mother, Suzanne Muñoz, and stepfather Miguel Muñoz noticed changes. Howell started reading the Bible more, along with financial literacy books. She overslept less and began taking more responsibility for things like paying her credit card bills on time. 

Miguel Muñoz likened his stepdaughter’s evolution over the past year to a creature that sheds its skin to grow. 

“She’s more responsible, and that’s not just because of the injury,” he said. “Naturally, that’s because she’s getting older, but the injury propelled her into the maturity that we need to see.”

Suzanne Muñoz echoed her husband’s remarks.

“At times, I’m like, ‘You don’t have the same Destiny,’” she said. “Sometimes you pour into your skills, but she poured into her person. She went from being a college student to an adult through this injury.”

For Howell, part of “pouring into her person” came through studying women’s basketball head coach Ty Grace while watching games from the bench last season. Howell desires to coach basketball after her playing career ends, and she embraced the opportunity to help guide her teammates.

“It was great to be able to watch her during the games, in huddles, in practices, trying to reiterate to her teammates about things that we talked about that she saw and that we are always encouraging them to do,” Grace said. “Even though she couldn’t physically be out there, she was mentally there.”

Now, Howell appreciates the perspective the injury gave her. 

“It changes your life in so many different ways,” she said. “You don’t even appreciate it because these are things that you just do every day and you don’t take the time out to say, ‘Thank God I’m able to sit down regularly. Thank God I’m able to bend down and tie my shoe. Thank God I’m able to walk to the bathroom.’”

As for losing her loved ones, it fueled her to make the most of what her aunt, uncle and childhood friend no longer have: life.

“It’s still something that’s so hard to wrap my head around, but just dealing with those deaths, you know, I just try not to sit in that setting. I try and use it as motivation to do better,” Howell said. “Be a better person, be a better daughter, be a better teammate, be a better basketball player — just be better in every aspect of life because I still have life.”

Now fully healthy, Howell looks forward to being on the court with her teammates this season and has her sights set on helping Howard win its second MEAC tournament title in three years. She’s excited to use her NIL deals – including partnerships with Ruffles, hair care brand Aunt Jackie’s Curls & Coils and energy drink brand C4 – for community-investment purposes, and she has personalized merchandise and a docuseries chronicling her comeback season in the works.

“Destiny’s return is a critical turning point for not just Howard women’s basketball but the entire athletic department,” Howard athletic director Kery Davis said. “Elite athletes like Destiny only come around once every so often. They don’t grow on trees.”

As Howard prepares to play George Washington on Friday, Howell relishes being able to once again play the game she loves.

“I’ve had so many thoughts this past year about what you’re going to do when you get back on the court, or I even envision myself in different scenarios on the court,” Howell said. “Being able to be in control of what I’m doing on the court and not envisioning it, that itself is a blessing.”