Houston Rockets star Dwight Howard has had a growing reputation for being selfish. Whether that reputation is true or not, he only added fuel to the fire this week when he expressed his displeasure with his former team, the Orlando Magic, for giving his old number 12 to another player.

"I just think that despite whatever happened, there was a lot of things that I did and that we did as a team, and that number was special down there," Howard said to the Orlando Sentinel. "And I was a little bit upset about that."

Most people would be surprised that a player such as Howard, who has not even retired yet, should think a former team should already retire his number. Furthermore, the player who is now wearing Howard's old number is wearing it in honor of a close friend who died of cancer.

Howard also was criticized last season for leaving the Los Angeles Lakers after only a brief stint with the team. He reportedly was unhappy that Kobe Bryant was stealing the spotlight and thus said he would only return if Bryant left. Bryant remained on the Lakers and Howard soon took off for Houston.

"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,'" he said regarding his departure from Los Angeles. "I thought that my decision took a lot of guts because everybody's saying, 'How could you leave the Lakers and 6 billion fans?'

Howard is gearing up for a big season with the Rockets. Houston has high expectations this year with the combination of Howard and former New York Knicks star Jeremy Lin, who joined the Rockets last year but failed to live up to the expectations.