Mitch Kupchak conducted his first interview since Dwight Howard decided to leave the Los Angeles Lakers to sign with the Houston Rockets.

"It wasn't a surprise. I had a feeling that Houston was a frontrunner, and whenever a player is an unrestricted free agent, anything can happen," Kupchak said. "Clearly, we wanted to keep him here in Los Angeles, and I felt we did everything we could do within reason to show we did want to keep him here.

"Until the end, I kept up hope. I think we were as persistent as we could be within reason. I wasn't shocked but I was disappointed."