Chandler Parsons is no Kobe Bryant. And that's a good thing for the Houston Rockets.
Dwight Howard gave a lot of credit to the 6-foot-9 Rockets sharpshooter for influencing his decision to sign with team during a news conference in Houston to welcome the All-Star center, according to the Los Angeles Times.
"Chandler is probably the guy you should really thank," Howard said of who or what ultimately brought him to Houston. "He's been blowing my phone up every day. He's been great."
Howard agreed to a four-year, $88 million offer from the Rockets, who also have an All-Star in guard James Harden, instead of the Lakers' five-year, $118 million offer. The Lakers were able to offer more because of Howard's one year of service with them in 2012-13.
During negotiations when Howard became a free agent on July, his talks with the Lakers reportedly didn't go well, in part, because Bryant told Howard he was going to teach the big man how to win.
Howard later denied those accounts, but another story arose that he asked Lakers management how the transition from the Lakers being Kobe's team to the Lakers being Howard's team was going to work if Bryant planned to play for three or four more years.
Meanwhile, Parsons was making frequent contact with Howard.
"I just told him, 'We're going to be really good without you, we're going to win games without you. Come make us great,'" Parsons said.
Howard added that when he went to Aspen, Colo., to mull over the offers from the Rockets, Lakers, Warriors, Mavericks and Hawks, he kept getting reminders pointing toward the Rockets, the Times reported.
"I believe in signs, and when I was in Aspen it seemed like everybody I met was from Houston," Howard said. "I just had a good feeling in my soul about everything, the direction of the team, and just had a great feeling about what they were trying to accomplish."
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