Houston Rockets C Dwight Howard upset the Orlando Magic gave his jersey number away

Houston Rockets center Dwight Howard will face off with the team that originally drafted him and he spent the first eight years of his career with, the Orlando Magic, on Wednesday night.

On Tuesday, Howard told John Denton of OrlandoMagic.com that he doesn’t care what his critics have to say about his performance with or how he left the Los Angeles Lakers.

Howard also told Denton he wanted to “recreate” what he had with the Magic, saying he missed certain things about Orlando, like the Magic’s NBA Finals run in 2009 and the charities that he participated in.

Howard complimented the Magic, but admitted to being a little upset about something.

“I would say that (the Magic) did some good things. They’ve got a lot of great pieces,’’ Howard told Denton. “But I’m still a little upset about the No. 12. I just think despite whatever happened, there were a lot of things that I did and we did as a team. That number is special down there. I was a little upset about that.”

Forward Tobias Harris, who was acquired from the Milwaukee Bucks in a trade involving guard J.J. Redick just before the trade deadline last season, wears 12.

In 27 games with the Magic last season, Harris was very productive, averaging 17.3 points and 8.5 rebounds per game.

Denton points out Harris wears the jersey to honor Morgan Childs, a former teammate of Harris’, who died of leukemia at age 17.