Tag: Hakeem Olajuwon

Rockets legend Rudy Tomjanovich inducted into Basketball Hall of Fame

With Rockets franchise icons Calvin Murphy and Hakeem Olajuwon there to present him, “Rudy T” happily accepted his induction on Saturday.

Legendary Rockets player and coach Rudy Tomjanovich was officially inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Saturday night. He was honored at the enshrinement ceremony in Springfield, Massachusetts, with Houston franchise icons (and fellow Hall of Famers) Calvin Murphy and Hakeem Olajuwon there to present him.

Murphy was a close friend of Tomjanovich from their playing days, while Olajuwon was the star player during his coaching era.

Upon induction, Tomjanovich said:

I fell in love with basketball the first time I saw it. And as a young boy, I carved into my headboard of my bed, ‘I love basketball.’ And I went to sleep with my hand on that carving and I dreamed — I dreamed of one day getting to the NBA. After today, I can say that my life turned out better than my wildest dreams.

To Murphy and Olajuwon on stage, Tomjanovich said:

Calvin, during my playing days, you were my teammate, my roommate, my neighbor, my best friend and most of all, my brother. We shared so many experiences together, it means so much that you are here to share this with me.

Hakeem, you more than anyone are responsible for me being here. You are the best player to ever wear a Houston Rockets jersey and one of the best of all time. You gave us your excellence, your leadership and your big heart. And you taught me something very valuable; the importance of spirituality in all phases of my life.

Tomjanovich also thanked a number of other players from his 1990s Rockets teams, including Kenny Smith, Otis Thorpe, Clyde Drexler, Vernon Maxwell, Sam Cassell, Mario Elie, and Carl Herrera.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJv-_gh5i-s

Now 72 years old, Tomjanovich played for the Rockets from 1970 through 1981, and was head coach from 1992 through 2003. That run included Houston’s only two NBA titles in the 1993-94 and 1994-95 seasons.

In his 11-plus seasons as head coach, Tomjanovich led the Rockets to a 503-397 (.559) regular-season record and a 51-39 (.567) mark in the NBA playoffs, headlined by Houston’s two championships in 1994 and 1995. He is by far the winningest coach in franchise history.

But “Rudy T,” as he’s best known in Rockets’ circles, was also a dynamic player ⁠— with averages of 17.4 points and 8.1 rebounds in 33.5 minutes per game over 11 seasons. He was a five-time All-Star at power forward.

“I want to thank the fans for their undying support,” Tomjanovich said on Saturday from the Hall of Fame stage. “We couldn’t have done it without you. I feel your spirit right here, Houston.”

Tomjanovich had been the only coach in history with multiple NBA titles and an Olympic gold medal who was not in the Hall of Fame. He was the only NBA head coach among the 2020 inductees, who had their enshrinements delayed by nine months due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Players to be inducted alongside “Rudy T” in the Class of 2020 included Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, and the late Kobe Bryant.

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Kevin Durant names Hakeem Olajuwon, Tracy McGrady to all-time NBA team

Having spent more than a decade in the NBA, Durant also identified former Rockets star James Harden as one of his top five teammates.

Future Hall of Famer Kevin Durant, who happened to play his college basketball at the University of Texas, showed plenty of respect to the Houston Rockets when asked to select his all-time NBA team.

During a recent appearance on the Million Dollaz Worth of Game podcast, Durant named Hakeem Olajuwon and Tracy McGrady to his all-time team, comprised of 12 players (i.e. a standard roster).

Others on the chosen team of legends included Durant, LeBron James, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Steph Curry, Magic Johnson, Dirk Nowitzki, Shaquille O’Neal, Anthony Davis, and Kevin Garnett.

Durant showed particular respect to Olajuwon, whom he named as a starter alongside James, Jordan, Bryant, and himself. One of the show’s hosts asked the 11-time All-Star, two-time NBA champion, and former league MVP about picking “The Dream” over Shaq, and KD replied:

I know you didn’t watch Hakeem, if you said something like that.

Durant, who has spent more than a decade in the NBA, also identified former Rockets star James Harden as one of his top five teammates in the league (along with Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Kyrie Irving, and either Russell Westbrook or Serge Ibaka). However, the inclusion of Harden in that list is likely bittersweet to Houston fans, since Durant’s current presence in Brooklyn reportedly played a role in Harden’s desire to be traded away from the Rockets earlier this season.

Durant played three competitive series versus Houston in the 2013, 2018, and 2019 playoffs, with his team (at the time, either Oklahoma City or Golden State) winning in six or seven games each time. While there were certainly some chippy moments here and there, it’s clear he still has numerous fond memories of the franchise and its star players.

The complete podcast can be listened to below.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfId3KTflWc

Hakeem Olajuwon, Calvin Murphy to present ‘Rudy T’ at Hall of Fame induction

Murphy was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1993, while Olajuwon joined him in 2008. On May 15, 2021, Tomjanovich joins both of them.

Former Houston Rockets player and head coach Rudy Tomjanovich will have franchise icons Calvin Murphy and Hakeem Olajuwon formally present him into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, according to the Hall’s official announcement. Tomjanovich is a part of the Class of 2020, which will have its enshrinement ceremony on May 15, 2021.

Tomjanovich played with Murphy throughout his 11-year career from 1970 through 1981. Olajuwon was the star player during his two NBA championships as a coach, 1994 and 1995. The full list of players to be inducted, along with their presenters, is available here.

In his 11-plus seasons as head coach, Tomjanovich led the Rockets to a 503-397 (.559) regular-season record and a 51-39 (.567) mark in the NBA playoffs, headlined by Houston’s two championships in 1994 and 1995. He is by far the winningest coach in franchise history.

Besides his extensive accomplishments as a coach, “Rudy T” was also a dynamic player ⁠— with averages of 17.4 points and 8.1 rebounds in 33.5 minutes per game. He was a five-time All-Star at power forward.

Others being inducted in the Class of 2020 include Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett and the late Kobe Bryant.

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Looking back at the best dunks in Houston Rockets franchise history

With the NBA’s annual slam dunk contest on tap for Sunday, we look back at some of the most memorable dunks in the history of the Rockets.

With the NBA’s annual slam dunk contest on tap for Sunday night, we’re looking back at some of the most meaningful and impressive dunks in the history of the Houston Rockets franchise.

No player has ever won the dunk contest as a member of the Rockets. That said, Steve Francis finished second as part of a spectacular showing in 2000, and likely would have won in most years. That year’s winner was Vince Carter, who had perhaps the greatest dunking night of all-time.

The Rockets, however, have certainly had their share of memorable in-game dunks — including on the league’s biggest stage, in the playoffs. Looking back over many years, here’s a roundup of some of Houston’s most impressive and significant dunks over the years.

Sixers veteran big man Dwight Howard reacts to passing Hakeem Olajuwon

Philadelphia 76ers veteran Dwight Howard reacts to passing the great Hakeem Olajuwon in rebounds.

The Philadelphia 76ers had a rough day on Saturday against the Denver Nuggets having to only play seven players due to a variety of injuries a well as plenty of players entering the league’s health and safety protocols. The result was predictable as they held a lead briefly in the game, but they trailed by as many as 22 and lost by 12.

There were a few bright spots in the game, however, as Tyrese Maxey joined Allen Iverson in the franchise’s rookie record books and veteran Dwight Howard also made some history.

Howard had 11 points and 11 rebounds in the game and in the process, he passed the great Hakeem Olajuwon for 13th on the league’s all-time rebounds list. Howard now has 13,749 rebounds in his career and he is just 20 away from tying Wes Unseld for 12th on the list.

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Howard has tailored a Hall of Fame career and he keeps on adding to it. His presence on this young Sixers team, especially in their current situation, is critical for their success as a group and for the development of the youngsters.

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Rockets fans roast Giannis for sharing his video edit with Olajuwon

Many Rockets fans on Twitter didn’t take kindly to Antetokounmpo’s edited video of himself alongside Hakeem Olajuwon and Michael Jordan.

With his recent MVP win for the 2019-20 season, Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo joined NBA legends Hakeem Olajuwon and Michael Jordan as the only players in league history to win the awards for MVP and Defensive Player of the Year in the same season.

“Just being in that conversation and in the same sentence as them, it means a lot to me,” Antetokounmpo said after the announcement.

At the moment, though, there is one obvious outlier among that trio. Jordan and Olajuwon combined for eight NBA titles in the 1990s, whereas the “Greek Freak” is still looking for his first after another early exit from the playoffs. When Olajuwon won MVP and Defensive Player of the Year in the 1993-94 season, he capped it with the first championship of his career and in the entire history of the Houston Rockets.

So when Antetokounmpo posted an edited video to his Twitter account on Wednesday of his own highlights mixed with Jordan and Olajuwon, many users felt compelled to note the clear difference.

It was a remarkable 2019-20 season for Antetokounmpo, who averaged 29.5 points (55.3% FG), 13.6 rebounds, and 5.6 assists per game.

But until the 6-foot-11 forward wins a title, there’s an obvious gap between the Milwaukee star and the sport’s all-time greats.

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James Harden passes Calvin Murphy for No. 2 on Rockets’ scoring list

With 23 points in Friday’s first quarter alone, Harden jumped the Hall of Famer for the No. 2 spot on Houston’s all-time scoring list.

With 23 points in just the first quarter of Friday’s opening game of the NBA restart, Houston Rockets superstar James Harden passed Hall of Famer Calvin Murphy for second on the franchise’s all-time scoring list.

Murphy scored 17,949 points for the Rockets over his storied career from 1970 through 1983. Harden still has a ways to go to catch Hakeem Olajuwon, who leads the Rockets with 26,511 career points in Houston.

Harden entered Friday leading the Rockets and the NBA with a 34.3 points per game scoring average, which is just the third time in over 30 years that a player has averaged at least 34 points in a season. (The other two were Harden’s 36.1 last season and Kobe Bryant’s 35.4 in 2005-06.)

Assuming he keeps his scoring average above 34 following the eight regular-season games of the restart, Harden will become just the third player in league history to average at least 34 points in two different seasons, joining Michael Jordan and Wilt Chamberlain.

Over his eight seasons to date in Houston, Harden has earned All-Star honors in all of them while leading his Rockets to the playoffs. The future Hall of Famer was the NBA’s 2017-18 MVP and a three-time MVP runner-up, and he appears poised for another top-three MVP finish this season.

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JR Smith baffled by ESPN ranking of Dirk Nowitzki over Hakeem Olajuwon

NBA veteran JR Smith, who is now with the Lakers, did not agree with ESPN’s new ranking of Dirk Nowitzki ahead of Hakeem Olajuwon.

NBA veteran JR Smith, who will play with the Los Angeles Lakers in the league’s upcoming restart, used his Twitter account Monday to come to the defense of legendary Houston Rockets center Hakeem Olajuwon.

Olajuwon ranked No. 2 overall on a list shown Monday on ESPN’s SportsCenter of the top foreign-born NBA players of all-time, with Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki in the top spot.

“The Dream,” however, won two championships to Nowitzki’s one. Nowitzki was also considered a defensive liability at times, whereas Olajuwon was a two-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year.

As such, Smith took to social media to dispute the ranking. Now 34 years old, Smith has played in the NBA since 2004, and his career overlapped significantly with that of Nowitzki (1998 to 2019).

For his 18-year career, Olajuwon averaged 21.8 points (51.2% FG), 11.1 rebounds, and 3.1 blocks per game. A 12-time All-Star, “The Dream” was a two-time champion and NBA Finals MVP; a two-time Defensive Player of the Year; and the league’s 1993-94 regular season MVP, which concluded with Houston’s first-ever championship in a major sports league.

A recent ESPN list ranked Olajuwon as the NBA’s No. 12 player of all-time, though some former players immediately said that was too low. Even so, it was still moderately higher than Nowitzki, who came in at No. 19.

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Nowitzki played 21 NBA seasons with the Mavericks, averaging 20.7 points (38.0% on 3-pointers) and 7.5 rebounds in 33.8 minutes per game.

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Kenny Smith on 1995 Bulls vs. Rockets: ‘They were just too small’

“We would’ve done the same thing,” Smith said of a 1995 NBA Finals matchup vs. Chicago. “The team that they lost to 4-2, we swept.”

As the starter at point guard for the 1993-94 and 1994-95 championship squads of the Houston Rockets, Kenny Smith knows the merits and accomplishments of those teams as well as anyone.

“The Jet” is also well aware of the popular NBA hypothetical from those days, which has recently taken on new life thanks to ESPN’s “The Last Dance” documentary on the 1990s Chicago Bulls.

Would Houston have won those titles, had Michael Jordan not abruptly taken a mid-career retirement from October 1993 to March 1995? After all, Chicago did win the three NBA championships both preceding and following Houston’s two-year “Clutch City” run in 1994 and 1995.

Many around the Rockets have long bristled at that notion, especially because the 1994-95 team had arguably the toughest championship path in NBA history. There’s also the fact that Jordan was playing in the 1995 playoffs, but his Bulls lost in the second round to Shaquille O’Neal’s Orlando Magic. Then, in the NBA Finals, the Rockets swept those Magic.

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In a Friday interview with Stephen A. Smith on ESPN’s First Take, Houston’s veteran point guard broached the subject by saying:

First of all, [Jordan] was wearing number 45, the year that they lost. And he was actually in the league. People forget that. But they were just too small. No Horace Grant. He was in Orlando. Dennis Rodman was still in San Antonio. That’s why they lost to Orlando Magic.

We would’ve done the same thing. The team that they lost to 4-2, we swept. It wasn’t Jordan wasn’t the best player. That wasn’t the best team. So if they didn’t keep Horace Grant or they didn’t get a Dennis Rodman with Michael, they would’ve been too small on the inside. I don’t think they would’ve won eight straight.

Hall of Fame center Hakeem Olajuwon recently made a very similar argument regarding his team’s championship merits.

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One popular theory is that Jordan was “rusty” in the 1995 playoffs after only playing in 17 regular-season games. But that’s not evident in the data. Jordan averaged more points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks per game in the 1995 playoffs than he did in the 1996 playoffs (when the Bulls won the title), all on superior shooting from the field.

Olajuwon’s Rockets also seemed to have a matchup edge against Jordan’s Bulls. In six meetings between 1991 and 1993, all prior to Jordan’s retirement, Houston went 5-1. Olajuwon clearly earned Jordan’s respect, as evidenced by Jordan selecting “The Dream” for his all-time NBA team.

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While they never met in the playoffs, Chicago’s nondescript centers such as Bill Cartwright and Luc Longley offered little resistance to Olajuwon in the regular season. By contrast, many of the teams Chicago defeated in the NBA Finals — such as Charles Barkley’s Phoenix Suns, Karl Malone’s Utah Jazz, and Shawn Kemp’s Seattle Sonics — lacked the offensive production at center to challenge the Bulls at their weakest position.

Ultimately, the Rockets and Bulls peaked at different times in the 1990s, and NBA fans never got to see the hypothetical play out in a playoff setting. As it is, though, the Rockets are happy with their two titles — and their championship veterans like Smith will understandably push back against anyone trying to diminish that group’s accomplishments.

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Today in 1994: Olajuwon, Maxwell lead Rockets to first NBA title

On June 22, 1994, Hakeem Olajuwon and Vernon Maxwell delivered on both ends of the court as Houston won its first major sports championship.

Led by 46 combined points from Hakeem Olajuwon and Vernon Maxwell, the Rockets claimed the first major sports title in Houston history with a 90-84 victory (box score) in Game 7 of the 1994 NBA Finals.

That game, which took place at The Summit in Houston, came 26 years ago today on June 22, 1994. Celebrations followed up and down Richmond Avenue, and a parade went through downtown days later.

Olajuwon, who was MVP of the 1993-94 regular season and the NBA Finals, scored a game-high 25 points in Game 7 to go with 10 rebounds, seven assists, and three blocks. Meanwhile, Maxwell added 21 points, including a dagger 3-pointer with just under two minutes left to play.

“Finally,” Olajuwon said postgame after the win over visiting New York. “If you were to write a book, you can’t write it any better. It’s been a great season for the team.” Houston had home-court advantage in Game 7 courtesy of a 58-24 regular season, which was the best record in team history. (Even today, only the 2017-18 Rockets have won more games.)

Point guards Kenny Smith and rookie Sam Cassell each played well under pressure, scoring a combined 24 points on 8-of-13 shooting (61.5%).

The New York Knicks were led in defeat by point guard Derek Harper, who scored 23 points. Patrick Ewing had 17 points and 10 rebounds, but Olajuwon’s defense helped limit him to a 41.2% shooting clip.

Maxwell’s defense was also quite impactful against Knicks guard John Starks, who scored just 8 points on 2-of-18 shooting (11.1%) from the field in the Game 7 loss. Starks was New York’s second-leading scorer in the 1993-94 season at 19.0 points per game.

Maxwell also, of course, hit the clinching shot on offense. “It’s the biggest shot so far in my career,” Maxwell said postgame. “Dream [Olajuwon] made a great pass, and I just shot the ball with a lot of confidence.”

Known best as “Clutch City,” that era’s Rockets went on to win the 1995 NBA championship, as well. Those back-to-back triumphs remain the only two professional basketball titles in Houston history.

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