The Houston Rockets is an American professional basketball team based in Houston, Texas. The team plays in the Southwest Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association (NBA). The team was established in 1967, and played in San Diego, California for four years, before being moved to Houston.
In the Rockets' debut season, they won only 15 games. But after drafting Elvin Hayes first overall in the 1969 NBA Draft, they made their first appearance in the playoffs in 1969. After Hayes was traded, Moses Malone was acquired to replace him. Malone won two MVPs during his time in Houston, and he led the Rockets to the conference finals in his first year with the Rockets. He also took the Rockets to the NBA Finals in 1981, but they were defeated in six games by the Boston Celtics.
In 1984, the Rockets drafted future Hall-of-Famer Hakeem Olajuwon, who led them to the 1986 Finals in his second year, where they lost again to Boston. In the next seven seasons, they lost in the first round of the playoffs five times. They did not win their first championship until 1994, when Olajuwon led them to the championship, and 1995. However, the Rockets did not advance to the finals again, and missed the playoffs from 1999–2003. They did not reach the playoffs again until they drafted Yao Ming and they did not advance past the first round of the playoffs again until 2009.
RED ROCKET==
Main article: History of the Houston RocketsSan Diego Rockets (1967–1971)
The Rockets were founded in 1967 in San Diego, and after being bought by Robert Breitbard for 1.75 million dollars, they joined the NBA as an expansion team for the 1967–68 NBA season. The San Diego franchise nickname became the "Rockets" due to the city calling itself "a city of motion". Jack McMahon was named the Rockets' coach, and the team's first draft pick, in 1967, was the future Hall of Fame coach Pat Riley. However, the Rockets went on to lose 67 games in their inaugural season, which was then an NBA record for losses in a season.
In 1968, after the Rockets won a coin toss against the Baltimore Bullets to determine who would have the first overall pick in the 1968 NBA Draft, they selected Elvin Hayes from the University of Houston. Hayes led the team to the franchise's first ever playoff appearance in 1969, but the Rockets lost in the semi-finals of the Western Division to the Atlanta Hawks, four games to two. In 1970 NBA Draft, the Rockets drafted Calvin Murphy and Rudy Tomjanovich, who would together play all their careers, a total of 25 seasons, with the Rockets.
Despite being coached by Hall of Fame coach Alex Hannum, the Rockets only tallied a 57–97 record in the following two seasons, and did not make the playoffs in either season. Because of the low performance and attendance, Breitbard looked to sell the team, and in 1971, Texas Sports Investments, which was led by real estate broker Wayne Duddleston and banker Billy Goldberg, bought the franchise for $5.6 million, and moved the team to Houston. The franchise became the first NBA team in Texas, and the team's nickname of "Rockets" took on even greater relevance after the move.
Improving in Houston (1971–1981)
Before the start of the 1971–72 NBA season, Hannum left for the Denver Nuggets of the American Basketball Association, and Tex Winter was hired in his place. However, Winter, who said that Hayes had "the worst fundamentals of any player" he had ever coached, applied a system that contrasted with the offensive style to which Hayes was accustomed. Because of the differences between Winter and Hayes, Houston traded Hayes, who had led the Rockets in scoring for four straight years, to the Baltimore Bullets for Jack Marin at the end of the 1971–72 season. Winter left soon after, in the spring of 1973, following the Rockets 10th straight loss, and he was replaced by Johnny Egan.
In the 1975–76 NBA season the Rockets finally had a permanent home in Houston as they moved into The Summit, which they would call home for the next 28 years. Under Egan's guidance, and as Tomjanovich, Murphy, and Mike Newlin led the way, the Rockets finished over .500 for the first time in franchise history, and they made their first appearance in the playoffs since arriving in Houston. The Rockets defeated the New York Knicks, who were led by Walt Frazier and Earl Monroe in a three-game mini-series in the first round, but lost to the Boston Celtics 4–2 in the Eastern Conference semi-finals.
Early into the 1977–78 season, at a game on December 9, 1977, Kevin Kunnert got into a fight with Kermit Washington of the Los Angeles Lakers. As Tomjanovich approached the altercation, Washington turned and threw a punch that landed squarely in the face of an approaching Tomjanovich, causing numerous fractures in his face. Tomjanovich spent the next five months in rehabilitation and returned to appear in the 1978 All-Star Game, but his averages significantly declined after the injury, and Houston finished with just 28 wins in the season.
In the following season, Malone, Murphy, and Tomjanovich all played in the 1979 NBA All-Star Game, and Malone received the 1979 MVP Award. The Rockets also sent John Lucas II to the Golden State Warriors in exchange for Rick Barry, who went on to set the NBA record at the time for free throw percentage in a season by shooting 94.7%. The Rockets went 47–35 in Nissalke's last season as coach, and finished second in the Central Division, but they lost to Atlanta in a best-of-three first-round series. In Houston's 1979–80 campaign, Del Harris replaced Nissalke as head coach, and he led the Rockets to a 41–41 record, tying the San Antonio Spurs for second place in the Central Division. The Rockets defeated the Spurs two games to one in their first-round playoff series, they were swept by the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference semi-finals.
In the 1980–81 season, after the newly-established Dallas Mavericks became the third NBA team in Texas, the NBA restructured the conferences and sent the Rockets, who had previously played in the Eastern Conference, to the Midwest Division of the Western Conference. In Harris's second season, Houston tied with Kansas City for second place in the Midwest Division behind San Antonio with a 40–42 record, and qualified for the playoffs with just one game left. During the season, Murphy set two NBA records, by sinking 78 consecutive free throws to break Rick Barry's mark of 60 set in 1976, and achieving a free-throw percentage of .958, breaking Barry's record set with the Rockets in 1979.
In the playoffs, Houston began a run that began when they upset Los Angeles two games to one, and then defeated George Gervin's Spurs four games to three in the Western Conference semifinals. This resulted in a conference finals matchup with the Kansas City Kings, who were led by Otis Birdsong, Scott Wedman, and Phil Ford. When the Kings fell to the Rockets in five games, the Rockets became the only team in NBA history to advanced to the Finals after having a losing record in the regular season. However, after splitting the first four games of the series with Boston, Houston eventually lost in six games.
The Twin Towers (1981–1993)
The following season, the Rockets improved their regular season mark to 46–36 but were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs. Although Malone won the league's Most Valuable Player award in that season, in the following offseason, the Rockets traded him to the Philadelphia 76ers for Caldwell Jones, to avoid paying his salary. When the Rockets finished a league worst 14–68, Celtics coach Bill Fitch was hired to replace outgoing Del Harris, and after winning a coin flip with the Indiana Pacers to obtain the first pick of the 1983 NBA Draft, the Rockets selected Ralph Sampson from the University of Virginia.
Although the Rockets finished only 29–53 in the 1983–1984 season, Ralph Sampson was awarded the NBA Rookie of the Year award, after averaging 21 points and 11 rebounds per game. Houston was again given the first pick of the 1984 NBA Draft, and they used it to select Hakeem Olajuwon from the University of Houston. In his first season, Olajuwon finished second to Michael Jordan in NBA Rookie of the Year balloting, and the Rockets record improved by 19 games, although they were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs. In the following season, both Olajuwon and Sampson were named to the Western Conference All-Stars in that year's all-star game, and the duo was nicknamed the "Twin Towers". In the playoffs, the Rockets defeated the Los Angeles Lakers in the conference finals in five games, after Sampson hit a buzzer beater to win Game 5, which Sampson said was "greatest moment of my basketball career". The Rockets competed in the finals for only the second time in team history, but the Celtics once again defeated the Rockets in the finals in six games. In the next year, the Rockets again made the playoffs, and advanced to the second round, before being eliminated by the Seattle SuperSonics. However, in the next three seasons, the Rockets were eliminated three straight times in the first round of the playoffs, despite Don Chaney replacing Fitch as head coach in 1988.
Chaney was named the Coach of the Year for the 1990–91 season, but the Rockets were once again eliminated in the first round of the playoffs, 3–0 to the Lakers. Midway through the next season, with the Rockets' record only 26–26, Chaney was replaced by former Houston player Tomjanovich. Although the Rockets did not mak
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