Houston just had a lot of convincing things to Dwight, and after putting everything into consideration, they basically rolled out the red carpet for him. The Rockets front office did a really good job to surround him with the help and parts that he wanted. With everything people have been saying about Jim Buss, it makes sense Dwight would leave for all those reasons already mentioned.
http://blog.chron.com/ultimaterockets/2 ... esh-start/To Howard, no consideration meant more to him when he weighed his options this week than “championship potential.” He had been moved by the conversations with Hakeem Olajuwon and excited by the plan described by Kevin McHale. He said his private conversation with Rockets owner Leslie Alexander might have meant more than even all the talks with Chandler Parsons and James Harden. But the greatest issue, he said, was the chance to win championships.
Howard had gotten the feeling that in Houston, he would be welcomed to the club of great big men, from Elvin Hayes to Moses Malone, Ralph Sampson, Hakeem Olajuwon and Yao Ming. Olajuwon’s influence was especially crucial. Howard has worked with Olajuwon in past off-seasons and will again, and while he hopes to be able to mimic some of Olajuwon’s moves and success, he already had the impression down.
“It meant a lot, just having Hakeem show up from Jordan,” Howard said. “He’s a great guy. We’ve had opportunities in the past to get together. He’s been one of my biggest supporters. I really thank Hakeem. I trust his judgment. I trust a lot of things he says. He’s been good from the first day he talked to my mom and said he wanted to work with me. I would work out with him and he would do a move and I would do a move and instead of the hook shot, I would dunk it and he would jump up and down and scream and say, “Oooh, you do my move better than me. Dwight, you have to do this is a game.’ We would just laugh. It was so great to be around him.
“I’m looking forward to having him and Kevin McHale push me. When I sat down with Kevin, he reminded me a lot of the drive of Clifford Ray (a former Magic assistant coach) when Clifford rare was my big man coach. He pushed me to the limit every day and then I worked out. He always said, ‘I’m going to kick your (butt)’ and at the end of the day give you a hug.”
