Image Courtesy of Bing
|
Many great NBA players from the 90s were shut out from
getting a championship ring by the presence of Michael Jordan and the Chicago
Bulls. However Hakeem Olajuwon and his teammates were able to
sneak in and snag a couple of rings while Jordan was on his baseball
sabbatical. The Dream, not surprisingly,
heads this list of the greatest
Rockets. A few of these guys started
their careers when the Rockets were in San Diego. The Rockets have had a number of great
players wind down their careers in a Rockets uniform. All in all, the Rockets have a fairly rich
history of outstanding players. Let’s
get started.
10:
Tracy McGrady.
Tracy spent six seasons of his illustrious 15 year career with the
Rockets. While Tracy was at his best
during the first five years of his career while with the Orlando Magic, he was
still pretty good when he came to the Rockets.
He averaged 22.7 ppg to go with 5.5 rebounds and 5.6 assists. Tracy was a volume shooter, hitting only .435
of his shots. McGrady was a two time
all star with the Rockets. Tracy got the
nod one this list over a number of other memorable shooting guards, including
Vernon “Mad Max” Maxwell, Steve Francis and Kenny “The Jet” Smith.
9:
Clyde Drexler. “The
Glide” was winding down his career by the time he came to the Rockets. Clyde spent 3+ seasons in Houston, putting of
a line 19.0-6.1-5.4. That’s very
impressive and is illustrative of Clyde’s balanced game. Clyde was a two time all star while in
Houston. Drexler is the choice for
“greatest performance by a hall of famer winding down his career in a Rockets
uniform” over Charles Barkley.
8:
Calvin Murphy. While
Calvin wasn’t as prolific on the court as he was off it, he still had an
excellent career. Calvin spent all of
his 13 seasons in the NBA with the Rockets, scoring 17.9 ppg to go with 4.4
assists. Not surprisingly for a guy who
was 5’9” he averaged only 2.1 rebounds per game. Calvin started his career with the Rockets when
they were based in San Diego. His best
season was the 1977-78 campaign when he averaged 25.2 ppg. Murphy was one of the great free throw
shooters in NBA history, hitting .892 from the line. Calvin started his career before the three
point line was in place. The last two
years of his career, the three pointer was in place, Calvin just didn’t use it
much. Murphy was an efficient scorer,
hitting .482 from the field.
7:
James Harden.
James’ legacy with the Rockets is still being written. He will probably end up higher on this list
when all is said and done. How much higher
will depend in large part on his playoff performance. It doesn’t seem possible, but this is
Harden’s seventh season with the Rockets since coming over from the OKC
Thunder. Harden has always been a big
time scorer with the Rockets, averaging between 25.4 and 30.4 with the
Rockets. Those 30.4 points per game, led
the NBA in the 2017-18 season. In the
2016-17 James led the NBA with 11.2 assists per game. Dude seriously dominates the ball. He’s
averaged 7.7 assists with the Rockets to go with 5.8 rebounds and 1.7
steals. Harden has been an all star in
all six of his full seasons with the Rockets and was the NBA’s MVP 2017-18
season. Maybe I should have put him
higher on this list.
6:
Rudy Tomjanovich. Rudy
T also started his Rockets career when the team was in San Diego. While Rudy may be remembered as the guy on
the receiving end of a devastating punch from Kermit Washington there was so
much more than that to his career.
Tomjanovich spent all 11 of his seasons in the NBA with the
Rockets. Rudy averaged 17.4 ppg for his
career, though he averaged about 20 points a game at his peak. He also averaged 8 rebounds and 2 assists to
go with his scoring. Tomjanovich was a
five-time all star. Rudy gets bonus
points for coaching the Rockets to their two NBA championships.
5:
Yao Ming. Yao was like a Chinese
Bill Walton, a great big man hindered by bad feet. Yao played seven seasons, plus five games in
another season in his time in the NBA.
Yao averaged 19 ppg, but at his peak scored 25 ppg. at his apex. Throw in 9 rebounds, 1.6 assists and two
blocks a game, and you have a great player.
Yao shot ,524 from the field and
an excellent .833 form the line. He was also
good in the playoffs. Ming was an eight
time all star and a generally fun guy.
4:
Elvin Hayes. Hayes
spent the first three seasons of his career with the Rockets while they were in
San Diego. Elvin led the NBA in scoring
in his rookie season, averaging 28.4 ppg.
He surpassed that by scoring 28.7
ppg in the 1970-71 campaign. Hayes time
with the Rockets totaled seven seasons.
They bookended his career. His
first four seasons were with the Rockets, and he finished his career with them,
playing his last three years with the team.
Hayes was an all star for his first four seasons with the team. Hayes’s shooting percentage was low for a
high scoring big guy, but he was strong on the boards, pulling down about 16
rebounds a game during his first four seasons.
He led the NBA in rebounding with 16.9 rebounds a game during the 1969-70. Hayes finally got a ring with the Washington Bullets
after leaving the Rockets.
3:
Moses Malone. Speaking
of guys who were monsters on the boards, here’s Moses Malone. Moses was especially active on the offense
boards, leading the NBA in that category all six of his seasons with the
Rockets. Moses’ raw stats with the
Rockets were 24 points and 15 rebounds a game.
Moses played in six All Star games with the Rockets. Moses shot for the best FG percentage of his
career while in Houston, hitting .514 from the field and .736 from the
line. Malone was well traveled in his
career, but Houston got him at his peak.
2:
Ralph Sampson.
Ralph teamed with Hakeem Olajuwan to form a Twin Towers operation. It’s easy to forget how good Sampson
was. Sampson put up 19.6 ppg and 10.5
rebounds in 4+ seasons in Houston. He
was an all star every year he played with the Rockets. Sampson was 7’4’ but played with a lot of
finesse. Some would say too much finesse. Injuries slowed Sampson prematurely, but at
his peak, he was a real force.
1: Hakeem
Olajuwon. Was
there any doubt who would be number one on this list? How good was Olajuwon? He was the number one pick in the draft when
Michael Jordan was the number three pick and the Rockets take little heat for
it. Probably, in part, because Hakeem
led the Rockets to two championships.
Olajuwon spent 17 of his 18 NBA seasons with the Rockets. Olajuwon’s
numbers are pretty much what you expect, 22,5 points and 11.4 rebounds per
game. Hakeem was the NBA’s MVP for the
1993-94 season well as the MVP for the NBA Finals in 1994 and 1995. In summary, it was a dream career.
No comments:
Post a Comment