Dwight Howard announces decision to sign with Rockets

Howard notified Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak on Friday night of his final decision not to resign with the team and then announced his decision to sign with the Rockets on Twitter.

By Scott Coleman@scottcoleman55 Jul 5, 2013, 10:51pm EDT

Dwight Howard has announced his decision to sign with the Houston Rockets. This comes minutes after Howard notified the Los Angeles Lakers of his decision not to return.

Howard tweeted:

"I've decided to become a member of the Houston Rockets. I feel its the best place for me and I am excited about joining the Rockets and I'm looking forward to a great season. I want to thank the fans in Los Angeles and wish them the best."

Earlier Friday, Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak released this statement:

"We have been informed of Dwight's decision to not return to the Lakers. Naturally we're disappointed. However, we will now move forward in a different direction with the future of the franchise and, as always, will do our best to build the best team possible, one our great lakers fans will be proud to support. To Dwight, we thank him for his time and consideration, and for his efforts with us last season. We wish him the best of luck on the remainder of his NBA career."

Reports surfaced on Friday afternoon that Howard had decided to sign with the Rockets instead of the Lakers. However, ESPN's Chris Broussard reported on an evening edition of SportsCenter that Howard was having second thoughts about going to Houston and that he was 50/50 on his decision.

That proved to be a false report. Howard is expected to sign with Houston on July 10.