Kobe Bryant doesn’t think it would be advantageous to hard-sell Dwight Howard on re-signing with the Los Angeles Lakers.

"It has to be his decision. The last thing you want to do is convince a person that they want to be here," Bryant said. "If you have to convince them when challenges or adversity comes up next season, it's very easy to say, 'Well they had to convince me to be here anyway, I really didn't want to be here, I'd rather be (somewhere else) but they sold me on it.' You want it to be his decision. When it's something that's rooted inside of him, it's something he champions. I just want to be there to assist his decision."

Bryant has made no secret of his desire to see Howard back with the Lakers.

"I think his talent level, his defensive prowess," Bryant said when asked why he wants Howard to re-sign. "We saw what he could do at the end of the year when we all started clicking … I think that makes him extremely, extremely valuable."