NBA Rumors: Houston Rockets’ Dwight Howard watched Miami Heat’s LeBron James

Dwight Howard has made a fan base quite angry in each of the last two years.

Back in 2011, a report surfaced that Howard wanted to play for the Brooklyn Nets. The Orlando Magic wound up keeping him for the rest of the season after he decided not to opt out of his contract and instead dealt him to the Los Angeles Lakers after the season. After one year in Los Angeles, he bolted for the Houston Rockets.

Howard says that he paid attention to LeBron James when he left the Cleveland Cavaliers for the Miami Heat to help him through the process.

“I watched it closely,” Howard told Howard Beck of Bleacher Report. “Because people don’t understand how tough it is, how tough it was for both of us to make the decisions that we made. And for me having to do it twice in the span of two years, very tough. Because you don’t want to hurt people. And I don’t think LeBron wanted to hurt anybody. And we have that same type of personality, to where we enjoy the fans. We want to be liked. So It’s very hard for both of us to deal with it.”

Howard has missed nine of the Rockets’ last 11 games, including each of the last six, with an ankle injury, but is still averaging 18.5 points, 12.3 rebounds, 1.8 blocks and 1.8 assists per game.