Our original 16-season voting bracket examining the greatest seasons in Houston Rockets history is down to two.
Both James Harden and Hakeem Olajuwon are MVPs, and widely considered to be the two greatest players in franchise history. Olajuwon’s 1993-94 run led to Houston’s first championship, and Harden’s 2018-19 campaign was one of the most historic scoring binges in NBA history.
But which player had the greatest season of all? That’s for you, our Rockets Wire readers, to decide. As a refresher, in an effort to be as neutral as possible, the seedings are ranked by Win Shares on Basketball Reference. Those are based on statistics during each regular season, rather than the playoffs. However, if you’d like to add playoff performance in that year to your criteria, that’s your prerogative as a voter.
Here’s a brief look back at each “finalist” season:
No. 5 seed: 2018-19 James Harden: 36.1 points (44.2% FG, 36.8% 3-pointers), 7.5 assists, 6.6 rebounds, 2.0 steals per game
Fresh off the winningest season in franchise history and coming up just one game short of the NBA Finals, the 2018-19 Rockets entered the year with championship expectations. They then got off to a rocky 11-14 start and lost co-star Chris Paul to a Grade 2 hamstring pull, leaving some to wonder if they’d even make the playoffs at all.
Harden wasn’t interested in that talk. His 36.1 points per game scoring average was a personal career-best and the most by any NBA player in over 30 years. Harden registered a historic streak of 32 straight games scoring 30 or more points, which took place largely during Paul’s absence. That remains the second-longest such streak in NBA history, and 2018-19 is remembered as Harden’s peak scoring season — at least so far.
Harden’s 36.8% clip on 3-pointers was especially impressive, considering his NBA-record volume of 12.9 attempts per game from behind the arc. (That, of course, reflects Houston’s increasingly 3-point heavy attack endorsed by head coach Mike D’Antoni and GM Daryl Morey.)
Houston finished the season 42-15 over its final 57 regular-season games, helping lift them from the West’s No. 14 seed at their lowest point to the No. 4 seed (and almost the No. 2). They lost in six games in the second round of the playoffs to eventual West champion Golden State, and Harden finished second in MVP voting to Giannis Antetokounmpo.
No. 7 seed: 1993-94 Hakeem Olajuwon: 27.3 points (52.8% FG), 11.9 rebounds, 3.7 blocks, 3.6 assists, 1.6 steals per game
After losing a hard-fought road Game 7 in overtime in the 1992 NBA playoffs to Seattle, the Rockets knew they were capable of winning a title. Led by Olajuwon, they made a big statement as to their readiness with a 15-0 start to 1993-94, which was tied at the time for the longest unbeaten streak in NBA history to begin a season. They finished at 58-24, representing what was then the most wins in one season in team history.
Olajuwon’s 27.3 points per game average in the 1993-94 season was the second-most of his Hall of Fame career, and he did it with strong durability at 80 games played. Most important, of course, is that the big man’s production fully carried over into the playoffs. “The Dream” led the NBA in playoff scoring at 28.9 points per game, and his Rockets went on to win the franchise’s first NBA championship in June 1994.
Olajuwon was awarded the NBA’s regular-season MVP in 1994 for the first and only time of his 18-year career, and he also won the NBA Finals MVP award — which he did again in 1995, as Houston took its second title.
Cast your vote below for our championship matchup.
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