1972 Up to now, Houston Rockets
Two NBA championships: 1993-94 season and 1994-95 season.
Number of 23 retired playoff jerseys:
22 clyde drexler.
23 Kelvin Murphy.
Moses malone) 34 hakeem olajuwon
45 rudy tomjanovich (rudy tomjanovich)
CD carroll dawson (former general manager)
1967-68 San Diego sailing team-disappointing first season
Rockets in the late 1960s can be described as "unable to find the north", but this is not surprising. In the 67-68 season, ABA (American Basketball Association) was born, consisting of 1 1 teams. At the same time, the then San Diego Rockets and seattle supersonics entered the NBA as two expanding new forces. The Rockets chose Pat Riley with the No.1 pick, but still set a shameful record of 15 wins and 67 losses, which was the most lost record in the NBA at that time.
1967101October14th, in front of 7476 spectators at San Diego Stadium, the Rockets staged their first battle. The starting lineup is: center John Brock, power forward Don Cogis, small forward Johnny Green, shooting guard mcloughlin and point guard John Barnhill. Head coach and team manager Jack McMahon. They got off to a bad start in this battle. They lost to the then St. Louis Hawks by one point in 98-99, and didn't win their tenth victory until Christmas. Since then, they have handed over 2 wins 14 losses in the opening answer sheet. The Rockets' record of stumbling all the way to the bottom has created shame and achieved the "best" in the league, but it has also won them a chance to win the top spot again next season.
1968- 197 1 coin front-big e
The simplest, fairest and most wonderful way to decide fate-toss a coin. This time, the small coin became a magic trick between the rocket and the Baltimore bullet (the predecessor of the Washington wizards). The rocket was thrown on the front, with the word "No.1 scholar" written on it. The rocket was engraved with the initials "E" of their sweetheart's name-elvin hayes. At the same time, the bullet team engraved wes unseld's name under the word "second place" on the back of the coin. Finally, we are together. They helped the Washington Bullets win the championship (1978), and their jerseys were hung over the arena in Washington. But this shining big "E" still burns in the history of the Rockets.
The first scholar selected, Irving Hayes, has just finished writing history at his alma mater, the University of Houston. In the confrontation with UCLA, he defeated Lew Alcindor (later kareem abdul-jabbar) by 39 points, even though UCLA Cougars just ended WSU· bruins's 43-game winning streak on the national broadcast.
Hayes also quickly demonstrated the professional standards of his NBA players after joining the Rockets. Not only that, he also won the scoring championship with an average of 28.4 points in his rookie season. He led the Rockets to a record of 37 wins and 45 losses in the 68-69 season, ranking fourth in the West (beating Chicago Bulls, seattle supersonics and Phoenix Suns), making the Rockets enter the playoffs and transform from a bad team into a respectable club. Unfortunately, in the subsequent semi-final (4-2), they lost 2-4 to the Hawks who just moved to Atlanta, and lost the chance of promotion. Despite his outstanding performance in the rookie season, Irwin still ranks behind ussel in many honors in the league. Unseld won the Eastern Division championship with 18.2 rebounds and leading bullets, and won the title of Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player.
Nevertheless, Irwin showed his qualifications as a candidate for the Hall of Fame. This big man with soft hand and fast movement is the kind of leader who can lead the team to glory. He averaged more than 27 points in the first three seasons. But even so, he can bring little help to the rocket. In the 69-70 season, under the leadership of the new coach Alex Hannum, the Rockets only scored 27-55, 70-7 1 40-42 in the season. The next year, they moved to Houston.
Although Irwin "Big E" Hayes has never led the Rockets to a championship and is suspected to be a "black hole", his achievements are still brilliant. This career of 20- 10, 1 championship, 12 all-star, hall of fame, 50-member iron man, is called "a model for all forwards".
197 1- 1972 moved to Houston-football or basketball.
197 1 year, Wayne Duddleston, a real estate agent, and Billy Goldberg, a banker, bought the Rockets for $5.6 million and moved the team to Houston because of its popularity at the box office. Although the city is crazy about American football, the bosses hope that elvin hayes, the city hero of Houston, can make basketball a quick success in Houston.
Ray Patterson, who has been the general manager of the Rockets for a long time, once said, "The bosses remember that Irwin made the space dome flood into 50,000 people in the 1968 game, so they thought,' The ticket for this person is $65,438+0,000, and 500,000 people are 500,000 yuan per night!' " "
Unfortunately, reality is always cruel. In the first year, the average home audience was only 4966, which caused the club to make ends meet. The Rockets arranged home games in Astrodome and AstroHall Arena in Houston, HemisFair Arena in San Antonio, Hofheinz Pavilions in Houston University and Waco Town. But the attendance rate is pitiful. There is a short story that when the Rockets played a game in Waco on a Wednesday night, there were many more people in the local church in the town than those who came to watch the game. The only person sitting in the box slept through the whole game and didn't wake up until the end of the game.
Despite the poor box office, the performance of the Rockets in the 7 1-72 season was respectable. Elvin, who is in his fourth season, is among the best in the league (10) in scoring (25.2) and rebounding (14.6) per game. At the same time, two young players, calvin murphy and rudy tomjanovich, also made people shine. In the first year of Houston, the Rockets were 34 wins and 48 losses, ranking fourth in the Pacific Group.
1972- 1974 desolate wandering-rock (without east)
Before the start of the 72-73 season, Irwin Hayes was traded to the Baltimore Bullets in exchange for Jack Marin and future options. After losing the big E, the Rockets assigned to the East Central Group were led by Tom Janovich (19.3ppg), Ma Lin (18.5ppg), Jimmy Walker (18.0ppg) and mike newlin (17.0ppg). In addition, Calvin Murphy's free throw percentage of 888 was second only to the record of Golden State Warriors small forward Rick Barry's 902. In the following years, the league's best two free throws continued their competition. Mike newlin's .886 was the third in the free throw percentage. This season's regular season rockets finally ranked third in the group with 33-49.
Although Rudy and Calvin improved their level in the following 73-74 season, their progress failed to boost the ranking of the Rockets. 32 wins and 50 losses, they are the third in the Central Group this season.
Murphy became famous at this time. As a fast-moving 5' 9 "point guard, he can contribute 20.4 points, 7.4 assists 1.9 steals and an impressive shooting percentage of 0.522 per game. 1993 He was elected to the naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
However, this team still failed to attract the attention of the people in Xiucheng. Rudy T once recalled: "One night we were sitting on the bench discussing where to play after the game, when a guy sitting in the distance shouted at us,' No, no, don't go there, it's not a good place to eat.' This stadium is out of space. Ray Patterson also recalled that they would play the Hawks and their number one Pete Malawi in the Hofheinz Exhibition Hall in the season opener. When he was driving on the road, the traffic jam gave him great encouragement. "Who knows that when they arrive at the venue, all these people go to the nearby gymnasium to watch the high school football match," Patterson said. "This kind of high school competition can attract 20,000 people, and we only have more than 200 people here."
1974- 1976 return to the playoffs-the dawn of progress
The progress of the Rockets in the 74-75 season made people see the hope of this team again. Led by Tom Janovich, Murphy and Newlin, the score of the Rockets was 10-5, and on March 8, their score was 37-3 1. At the end of the regular season, they ranked second in the Central Group with 4 1-4 1, second only to Washington Bullets. This is john egan's second full season coaching the Rockets. They also made their first playoff appearance after moving to Houston, and played against new york in the first round under the new best-of-three system.
The Knicks, mainly composed of walter frazier, Earl Monroe, bill bradley and jerry lucas, is an aging team. They can't keep pace with the young rockets. The Rockets won the series with 2-/kloc-0-0, and advanced to the next round. They met the Boston Celtics in the Western Conference semifinals. This team, led by David Cowens, won 60 games in the regular season and was unstoppable, 4-/kloc-0-,completely killing the Rockets.
But the rocket's efforts were not in vain. When competing for playoff seats at the end of the season, HP Arena sold out for the first time, and the audience poured into 105 18 fans to cheer for the Rockets. Unfortunately, in the following 75-76 season, the Rockets failed to continue their glory, only scored 40-42, and missed the playoffs. For most of that season, the Rockets' starting lineup included rudy tomjanovich, calvin murphy, mike newlin, kevin kunnert and Ed Ratliff.
1976- 1977 savior-Moses
The Rockets are waiting for their savior-moses malone. Moses' experience is the most interesting of all NBA players. In 1974, he signed an unprecedented contract with the Utah Star Team of Aba League as a high school star in Petersburg, Virginia. In the first year, he averaged 18.8 points 14.6 rebounds. Then he played in the spirit of St. Louis for a season. In the following 75-76 season, ABA merged with NBA, and Moses joined the Buffalo Warriors.
1October 24th,1976 10, Moses was given to the Rockets by the Warriors in exchange for two first-round draft picks. The deal was made at the insistence of the new Rockets coach Tom nisar, who coached Moses during his rookie season in Utah. When he joined the Rockets, Moses, who was 2 1 year-old, was considered by many people to be still in the learning stage, which also meant that he still had a lot of room for improvement. In the 76-77 season, Moses averaged 13.2 points and 13. 1 rebounds, ranking first in the league with 437 offensive rebounds. The Rockets, led by Tom Janovich, Murphy, Newlin, Malone, Quinnett and rookie guard John Lucas, beat Washington and won the first place in the Central Group with a record of 49-33. Rudy T averaged 2 1.6 per game, ranking first in the team and making his fourth consecutive All-Star appearance.
In the first round of the playoffs, the Rockets were lucky to have a bye, and they were hit by bullets in the following Eastern Conference semifinals. At this time, Moses, who was still a child, pressed the bullets Gemini Unseld and Hayes to help the rocket ignite 4-2.
In the Eastern Conference finals, the Rockets lost 2-4 to Philadelphia 76 ers. A controversial penalty against Lucas at the last critical moment of Game 6 put the victory of this series in the hands of the 76ers.
1977- 1978 the victim of boxing tragedy-Rudy T.
In the 77-78 season,165438+1October 9, the Rockets played against the Los Angeles Lakers. This game will always be remembered as a negative case. What happened next was outrageous. First, Kunnat wrestled with Comite Washington of the Lakers. Then, when Tom Janovich ran up to pull the frame, the anxious Washington man turned and punched Rudy in the face, causing extensive contusions on his face, chin, eyes and facial bones. Tomjanovich has been recovering for the next five months. Although he will return next season, he will never return to his previous all-star status.
In the next game, the Rockets acted like Rudy had a broken jaw. The Rockets, which entered the division finals last year, ended last season with a record of only 28 wins and 54 losses.
1978- 1980 shining Malone, bleak playoffs
After what happened last season, moses malone finally found himself in the new season. He averaged 24.8 points and grabbed 17.6 rebounds, becoming the league's rebounding king, nearly five more than the second-ranked New Orleans jazz player Ricky Kelly's 12.8 rebounds, and won the title of the league's most valuable player. Although Malone is not particularly tall and agile, he has exquisite footwork, good blocking skills and firm determination to become a super center. Malone, teammates Murphy and Tom Janovich (averaging 65,438+09 points after his comeback) all participated in the' 79 All-Star Game.
In the same year, rick barry joined the Rockets as a free agent. As a bargaining chip, the Rockets sent John Lucas to Golden State. Future Hall of Famers will only get a meaningful average of 13.5 points later in their careers. But he did set a new NBA record-947% free throw percentage this season. Barry 1980 retired.
The 78-79 season was nisar's last season as the head coach of the Rockets. They scored 47-35, ranking second in the Central Group. Entering the playoffs with high expectations, the Rockets lost to Atlanta Hawks twice in the first round.
Del Harris replaced nisar as head coach in the 79-80 season. Moses continued to dominate the inside with 25.8 points and 14.5 rebounds per game, Murphy contributed 20 points, and Barry ended his career with 12 points per game. 4 1-4 1, Rockets and Spurs tied for second place in the Central Group. They beat the Spurs 2-/Kloc-0-0 in the first round of the playoffs, but were swept 4-0 by the Celtics in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
With the addition of Dallas Mavericks, the third team in Texas, the Rockets were divided into the Western Conference Group in the 80-8 1 season, tied with San Antonio Spurs, Kansas City Kings, Denver Nuggets, Utah Jazz and Dallas Mavericks.
1980- 198 1 incredible season-entering the finals
The representatives of this season are undoubtedly the big bird and magician in grade two. But Moses unexpectedly led his teammates to the final. He averaged 27.8 points per game, ranked second in the league, and ranked first with 14.8 rebounds, followed by the MVP award of Philadelphia hero Dr. J (Julius Erving). Murphy, a 32-year-old veteran, had an unforgettable season as the shortest player in the league at that time. In addition to averaging 16.7 per game, he broke rick barry 1976' s record of 60 points through 78 consecutive free throws, and ended Barry's record of 94.7% when he was with the Rockets in 1979 with 95.8% free throw percentage (206 points in 2 15).
Rudy tomjanovich (1 1.6 points) and Robert Reed (15.9 points), who are 6 feet 8 inches tall, are the only players in the team who started 82 games, and they have made steady contributions. Other players who start from time to time include mike dunleavy, Allen Livermore, billy Parcz, bill willoughby, Calvin Garrett, Tom Henderson and Major Jones. The Rockets finally ended the 80-8 1 regular season with a record of 40 wins and 42 losses, and tied with the Kings for the second place in the Chinese and Western Group, behind the Spurs.
After winning a game in the last week of the regular season, the Rockets entered the playoffs silently, but also began their brave journey in the playoffs. After the first round draw with the defending champion Lakers with 1- 1, the Rockets were considered to have little chance of promotion, but Angel City lost to the Rockets with 1-2. Later, the Rockets stepped on the Spurs and their star george gervin 4-3 in the semi-finals, and met the Kings with 40 wins and 42 losses in the regular season.
Compared with Moses and his teammates, Kings led by Otis Birdsong, Scott Wedman and phil ford proved to be uncompetitive, 4- 1. The Rockets won the fifth game and entered the finals for the first time. In fact, the promotion of 8 1 Rocket is also the first time that a team has entered the finals for the championship in baseball, basketball and football competitions in Aerospace City.
Their final opponent is the Eastern Champion Boston Celtics. At that time, the Eastern District was stronger than the Western District. There were three teams that won 60 games in the regular season, namely Boston Celtics, Philadelphia 76ers and Milwaukee Bucks. Seltik, who owns larry bird, robert parish, Cedric Maxwell and kevin mchale, is thought by experts to win the series for the Rockets, although Moses boasted that he could win the series with four hometown boys. Facts have proved that both the expert and Moses were wrong. Although the Celtics won, Del Harris's lineup of rockets resisted tenaciously and finally lost 2-4 in Game 6.
198 1- 1982 Moses-see also MVP.
8 1-82 season is another brilliant season for Moses. The league averaged 365,438+0.65,438+0 points and 65,438+04.7 rebounds per game, and competed for the MVP award for the second time. At the same time, Irwin's return also helped him to increase the blocking strength inside. Big E completed the last three seasons of his career with the Rockets. Except for their two fixed inside combinations, the other positions of the team are rotated. Rudy retired as a scout, Murphy became a substitute player, and the position of defender was contested by Tom Henderson, Allen Levell, mike dunleavy and many others.
After the regular season, the Rockets ranked second in the Chinese and Western Group with a score of 46-36, and the Spurs ranked first. However, in the playoffs, the Rockets lost to the SuperSonics in the first round with 1-2.
At the same time, the game on another battlefield affected the next fate of the rocket. The Angel City Lakers were unstoppable, beating the 76ers 4-2 in the finals. These are all because the 76ers don't have a stable center to compete with the Lakers' Jabba, so they try to find an excellent center in the next season.
1982-19.83 million USD, sir.
After the 8 1-82 season, moses malone became a free agent, and the 76 ers offered him a huge contract worth13.2 million dollars. The Rockets refused and offered the same price, then traded Malone to the 76ers in exchange for caldwell jones and a first-round draft pick.
Malone's departure also took away the spirit and soul of the Rockets, who struggled for the next two seasons. In the 82-83 season, the Rockets set a league record of 14-68 in free fall, and no player scored more than 15 in a single game. Meanwhile, Malone and the 76ers swept the Lakers and won the 83-year finals. After going to the 76ers, Malone won his second consecutive MVP trophy that year, although he faced a process of readjustment and adaptation.
1983- 1985 Twin Towers Raiders
Fortunately, poor results can bring the team a high draft, so can the Rockets, who won the No.1 pick in 1983 and 1984. The rockets were not wasted, and they made the right choice. In the past two years, 7-foot-4 Ralph Sampson and 7-foot Olajuwon Achim (later changed to Hakim) were chosen to form the tallest towers in the league.
Sampson won the naismith Prize three times at the University of Virginia, and was called the next Kareem Abdul-Jabbar because of his excellent figure and technical characteristics. The rookie giant, led by new coach bill fitch, helped the Rockets win 15 games in the 83-84 season, with a score of 29-53. After playing all 82 games, sampson averaged 2 1.0 points, 1.65, 438+0 rebounds and 2.40 blocks, and won the Best Rookie Award without dispute.
The height of big men in the league is increasing, from 6- 10 in George Mikan to 7- 1+0 in wilt chamberlain to 7-2 in Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. But in the 84-85 season, the giant twin towers discharged by the rockets were unprecedented in the league.
Before entering the NBA, Olajuwon had less experience than sampson. He led the Jaguar basketball team of the University of Houston (nicknamed "the slam dunk master") to the NCAA semi-finals three times, but Olajuwon, who was born in Nigeria, actually didn't start playing basketball until 1978, that is, two years before he entered the university. Houston defeated Portland Trailblazers in coin toss and put the first prize on Olajuwon's head. The Blazers chose sam bowie and released a defender named Michael Jordan to Chicago.
In the first year of cooperation, sampson (averaging 22. 1 minute 1.4 rebounds) and Olajuwon (averaging 20.6 points1.9 rebounds) were comfortable in the restricted area. They are the first teammates who won both 20+ and 10+ after Chamberlain and elgin baylor. In the voting for the best rookie of the year, Olajuwon ranked second after Jordan.
In the 84-85 season, driven by the "Twin Towers", the Rockets won 48 wins and 34 losses in the regular season, ranking second in the Chinese and Western Group. However, although they returned to the playoffs, they lost to Utah Jazz 2-3 in the first round.