Dwight Howard excited for 'new beginning' in Atlanta

After officially inking a multi-year contract with the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday night, 30-year-old center Dwight Howard is excited to leave his time in Houston behind him and prepare for a fresh start with his hometown team.

‎"It's really just a new beginning for me," Howard told ESPN's Marc Stein. "I want to change from where I was at in my career and try to make the latter part of my career greater than the first part."

There's no question that Howard's tenure with the Rockets ended worse than it began, as reports of a feud between him and teammate James Harden surfaced during his final season with the team, as well as speculation that he wanted out of Houston.

While reports may suggest otherwise, Howard stated that a lot of the wide-held rumors that he's a difficult teammate couldn't be further from the truth.

"People are always going to talk," Howard said. "I think the biggest thing that I have to do is not allow it to get into my heart. I've never been somebody who didn't care about my teammates, and I've never been that way. And to hear 'cancer,' to hear 'diva,' things like that, that's not me."

With that being said, Howard admits that his Rockets tenure didn't go as well as he'd hoped, but remains grateful for his time in southeast Texas.

‎"I thought it started out really good, and it just didn't end the way we all wanted to in Houston," Howard added. "But for me, that situation is over with. I learned a lot from being there, and it just really built a lot of character. I really had to endure a lot of things, a lot of heartaches, a lot of things that were being said about me publicly that I knew (weren't) true. But I really had to learn how to endure those things, and it really just made me stronger."