Los Angeles, CA

Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant said he will speak with center Dwight Howard over the summer in an effort to keep the latter in Hollywood.

Howard can become a free agent and listen to other teams offers beginning July 1. The Rockets will be among the likely suitors for his talents.

"For me, you kind of let him do his due diligence and then move in and talk to him and figure out if this is a place he wants to be," Bryant told ESPN.com of what his effort will be to retain Dwight Howard with the Lakers. "We all want him here. But then that's when the selling begins [after Howard is courted by other teams]. You don't start the selling process right before he goes and does all this stuff. You want to get the last word. You want to have the final word and the closing argument."

Howard's one season with the Lakers was rocky, as L.A. was injury-riddled and underachieving.

Kobe has his own challenges, as well, overcoming leg surgery though he hopes to return for next season's opener.

"I hope so," Bryant said. "That's the challenge. With the tendon, there's really only but so much you can do. There's a certain amount of time that they deem necessary for the tendon to heal where you don't overstretch it and now you never get that spring back.

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