Houston Rockets: All-Time Starting Five
The Houston Rockets are celebrating their 45th season of NBA basketball in 2011-12, a history that includes back-to-back championships in the 1990s and a host of Hall of Fame superstars dating to the franchise’s 1967 inception in San Diego.
After its 1971 move to a city that better suited the team’s nickname, the Rockets have seen many changes take place, such as the mascot shift from Turbo to Clutch the Bear in celebration of Houston’s “Clutch City” reputation. Or the evolution from the famed yellow-and-red “retro” jerseys to the pinstriped blue to the modern incarnation of Rockets uniforms. NBA notables Tex Winter, Bill Fitch, Rudy Tomjanovich, Jeff Van Gundy, Rick Adelman, and now Kevin McHale have all manned the head coaching helm, and current G.M. Daryl Morey is a basketball pioneer in the use of innovative, Moneyball-inspired sabermetric principles to evaluate talent.
But it’s the players who stand out brightest in fans’ memories, and narrowing the list of Rockets’ greats down to a starting five is not a simple task. Composed mainly of players from Houston’s most successful decade — the 1990s — here is an attempt to mold the greatest Rockets starting five of all time:
PG: Kenny Smith. Smith gets the slight nod over Calvin Murphy, Houston’s all-time leading scorer until 1994, because he commandeered the Rockets for its two championships and is a highly visible television presence on TNT’s popular basketball broadcasts. The Queens native and University of North Carolina alum was drafted sixth overall by the Sacramento Kings in the 1987 draft, traded to Houston in 1990, and averaged 13 points and six assists per game for his career.
Those modest statistics don’t measure Smith’s leadership qualities or proficiency for coming up big in clutch, playoff situations for Houston. Smith was the starting point guard when the Rockets defeated the New York Knicks in seven games to win the 1994 championship, but most NBA fans recall his memorable performance in Game 1 of the 1995 finals versus the Orlando Magic. He drained seven three-pointers, including one that sent the game to overtime, in a contest that saw the Rockets overcome a 20-point deficit to win 120-118.
SG: Clyde Drexler. Clyde “The Glide” Drexler may have spent the prime of his professional career in Portland, but Houston is in the current Rockets color commentator’s blood. He played high school ball there and eventually college too at the University of Houston, where he contributed to the legend of the “Phi Slamma Jamma” fraternity of dunking alongside Larry Micheaux and Hakeem Olajuwon. He led the Cougars to two straight Final Four appearances, including the championship game in 1983, where they lost to North Carolina State. Drexler finished his UH career as its steals leader and the only player in program history with combined totals of at least 1,000 points, 900 rebounds, and 300 assists.
Drexler wouldn’t land with Rockets until the 1994-95 season, but he made the most of his four seasons in Texas. The Rockets won the 1995 NBA championship as a sixth seed as Drexler paired with college teammate Olajuwon, and Houston would reach the 1997 Western Conference Finals with the “Big Three” of Drexler, Olajuwon, and Charles Barkley before Clyde finally called it quits in 1998. Drexler was one of the smoothest athletes and best dunkers in NBA history, but outside of the highlight flash he also possessed a phenomenal all-around floor game and knack for runaway steals to spark fast breaks. He would be named to the NBA’s 50 greatest players list, won a gold medal with the U.S. National Team in 1992, was a 10-time All-Star, and made the Hall of Fame, finishing his career with over 22,000 points.
SF: Rudy Tomjanovich. Tomjanovich made this list for his legendary Rockets coaching career, loyalty to the organization, and for his on-court play, which was consistently stellar. Rudy T, he of the steadily repeated “Don’t ever underestimate the heart of a champion” speech and mouthful of a last name, coached the Rockets for its two championships in 1994 and 1995. He also played for the Rockets organization for the entirety of his career; he was drafted number two overall in 1970 when the team was still based in San Diego, and stayed with them for all eleven of his professional years.
Tomjanovich averaged 17 points and eight rebounds for his career, and he is the third-leading scorer in franchise history behind Olajuwon and Murphy. He also overcome an infamous punch from L.A. Laker enforcer Kermit Washington that essentially broke his face, returning to the league after a five-month recovery period but retiring in his mid-30s due to the injury. Despite causal basketball fans remembering the punch more than the play, Rudy T’s number 45 jersey was retired by the Houston Rockets, as all players’ jerseys on this list were.
PF: Moses Malone. Malone gets the nod over UH product Elvin Hayes because he had more individual and team success while wearing the Rockets uniform. Moses was the first wildly successful professional basketball star to come straight from high school, and he played for Houston from 1976-82 after a two-year stint in the ABA. Malone, a 13-time All-Star and four-time 1st team All-NBA selection, was named NBA MVP twice with Houston and led the organization to the 1981 NBA Finals, when Houston lost in six games to the Boston Celtics. Alas, Malone, named to the NBA’s 50 greatest players list, would not win a title until he suited up with the Philadelphia 76ers in 1983. He would win another MVP award there as well.
Malone was perhaps the best rebounders in NBA history and a frothing mule of an athlete. He scored 25 points per game and nabbed 18 rebounds a contest during his 1979 MVP season, and finished second only to George Gervin in scoring when he won the award again in 1982. He averaged 31 points and 15 rebounds per game that season. The 6 ft. 10 workhorse led the league in rebounding for five straight seasons, hauled in 37 boards in one regular season game against the New Orleans Jazz, and is one of only two players in league history to record over 500 offensive rebounds in a single season. Malone is one of the NBA’s greatest double-double machines ever and the first truly great Rocket in the franchise’s history.
C: Hakeem Olajuwon. A no-brainer, Olajuwon could make a strong case for best center of all-time, or at least the most fluid. He is undeniably the greatest Houston Rocket of all-time, and he took a team of convenient role players to make them two-time NBA champions in the mid-1990s. Hakeem “The Dream” could move like a guard, spin his defender like a top with a dizzying array of up-and-under post moves, keep blocked shots inbounds, and he was one of the most honorable, sportsmanlike superstars in NBA history. He was a soccer player as a youth, which aided in his sublime footwork and agility.
The generously listed 7-foot Nigerian played his college ball with Drexler at Houston, and led the Cougars to another championship game defeat at the hands of Patrick Ewing’s Georgetown Hoyas in the 1984 NCAA Finals after Drexler departed a year early. Hakeem was the number one overall pick in the 1984 draft that famously yielded Michael Jordan, but Olajuwon was was no bust — he is the NBA’s all-time blocked shots leader with 3,830 (the NBA didn’t even keep track of the statistic when he first entered the league), a two-time defensive player of the year winner, a two-time NBA Finals MVP, the 1994 NBA MVP, and a 12-time All-Star. Olajuwon led the Rockets to a pair of titles, in a rematch with Ewing and his Knicks in 1994 and versus a young Shaquille O’Neal’s Magic in a 1995 Finals sweep. Olajuwon also played on the Rockets’ 1986 NBA Finals team that lost to Boston alongside Ralph Sampson and a bunch of guys who couldn’t shake cocaine. Finally, Hakeem won a gold medal in the 1996 Olympics and was, of course, named one of the NBA’s 50 greatest players. Most importantly, Olajuwon didn’t just dominate the league with his famed “Dream Shake” move, he did it with dignity and class.
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