When making his free agency decision in the summer, Dwight Howard was careful to avoid making some of the mistakes that plagued him in his departure from the Orlando Magic.

Howard left the Los Angeles Lakers to sign with the Houston Rockets.

"Everybody's saying I was a 'coward' for leaving [the Lakers], and I knew I was going to get that," Howard said Tuesday. "But I think with the situation I had to do what was best for Dwight.

"I know when I wanted to leave Orlando, and I decided to stay, I wasn't happy on the inside. I wanted to please everybody else and ended up hurting a lot of people by doing it the way I did. So, this time it's like I had a second chance.

"I said, 'You know what? People are going to hate me for whatever reason, so I can't allow that to stop me from making my decision.' I thought that my decision took a lot of guts because everybody's saying, 'How could you leave the Lakers and six billion fans?' But I don't care about being an outcast or about being somebody that may look bad. All I've got to do is win now, and I'm in the right situation."