Calvin Murphy's Foreword-50 Seasons Book

nickb492 · Dec 8, 2016

Coming out of Niagara University, I wanted to play for the Buffalo Braves. I anticipated that I'd go in the first round, so when the Braves passed on me and the San Diego Rockets took me in the first pick in the second round, my ego was bruised. I was First-Team All-American, and people still thought I was too small to play the game?

But when I talked to San Diego, they assured me that the second round was just a number and that I had a great future in the Rockets organization. They could see that I was a community-minded individual, in addition to be an excellent basketball player, and they told me I would always be a Rocket-but I didn't realize it would be a Rocket east of the I-10 freeway in Houston!

The best thing that ever happened to me was becoming a member of the Houston Rockets. I take great pride in the fact that I'm the only member of the San Diego team still with the organization. I played for seven coaches and seven owners during my stint with the Rockets, so I have a pretty good account of the franchise from the beginning.

When the Rockets originally came to Houston, I thought there would be a lot of fanfare; that there was going to be a marching band waiting for us at the airport. But the only thing waiting for us at the airport were taxicab! We were an afterthought because Texas is a football state. We quickly learned that we would have to be the ones to spread the love of basketball here.

I had purchased a house in San Diego two weeks before the team was sold, so I went from buying my first home to suddenly scrambling to move into an apartment complex on the west side of Houston with my wife and a baby girl. It was a little unsettling, but the Rockets did everything they could to make us comfortable.

It was a necessity for us to be involved in the community to help draw fans. I sold tickets for the Rockets during the summer. When we played at the Hofheinz Pavilion at the University of Houston, we brought in the Boy Scouts for out TV games so it would look like we had people in the stands! Back then, you could get a ticket off a bread wrapper, and if you forgot it, you could bring it the next day.

As time went on we established a fan base, the connection with the community became a part of the Rocket's identity. Fans really started to come around when we moved into The Summit in 1975. We had some small successes beforehand, like beating the Knicks in the first round of the playoffs the previous year, but I noticed a change in attitudes when we moved into The Summit. We developed a core of followers who consistently came, and some of those people are still coming today.

I wanted to be part of the first team to win a championship for the Rockets, but it didn't work out. When the franchise finally won its first championship in 1994, I was going crazy that night. I was jumping around with the players. I was happy because that accomplishment was an extension of what we had tried to do back in the day, but it just took some other players to complete it.

When they won that championship with the great Hakeem Olajuwon, I felt like I was part of that because I was a Rocket at heart, and the players were nice enough to take me--and all the other fans--along for the ride. To see where the organization came from and where it went, it didn't get any better.

After those back-to-back championships, the Rockets put even more time and money back into the community. Leslie Alexander, who bought the team in 1993, has put a lot into the community, both through his charitable ventures and also through our community relations department. The Rockets do it because they believe in it, not because they feel that they have to.

Houston fans appreciate a blue-collar player, and they identity with players who are not afraid to get their uniforms dirty. Hakeem Olajuwon is the greatest player to wear a Rockets uniform, and he was a talented rascal, but he worked hard and gave everything he had.

Rockets fans also like players who are not afraid to be themselves and be real. If a player takes that authenticity and goes out and lets the Houston people get close to him, he'll be a hero to the city. Houston doesn't want a hotshot who, if the team loses, doesn't talk to anybody and rides into the sunset. They want regular people who feel, who laugh, who cry.

Whenever I've gone to Elvin Hayes, Rudy Tomjanovich, or any of my old teammates to do things in the community with they kids, they've always come out. Yao Ming allowed me to roast him for an event that raised money for the Leader's Academy Success, and he didn't even know those youngsters; he just knew they needed help. Generations of the Rockets family came out to support the school, including Del Harris, Clyde Drexler, and Dikembe Mutombo.

It's not just the superstars with the big contracts that help. Robert Reid was a star but not a megastar, and he went into the streets and helped people. Donatas Montiejunas is instrumental in supporting the neighborhoods even when the media isn't around. Patrick Beverley, a blue-collar worker, goes out on his own and makes a difference in the community.

It's one thing to support the community with your dollars-these guys make a lot of money and can do that-but to be present with kids, to let them get close, to share a hug or take a picture, that speaks volumes about the connection players can make.

I call Houston home because the people of Houston embraced me at my lowest. It's easy to embrace someone when things are going great, but the people of Houston know me as a person, not just an athlete. I'm more comfortable here than in my own hometown. And Mr. Alexander, a man who truly values a family culture, was the driving force in having me remain part of the franchise.

When the Rockets decided to retire my jersey, I got emotional. My number had been retired by my junior high school, high school, and college, but that had been about basketball. With the Rockets, it was about everything I had done with the organization over the years. A lot of people have came through the organization in the past 50 years, so it's a major source of pride for the Rockets to have recognized me as one of the very best, both as a player and also as a person.

This 50th anniversary book is important because people tend to forget the past. After I tired, the Rockets gave me a collage of my career, and I have that hanging on my game room wall. When I looked at those photos and see the uniforms, sneakers, awards, and everything else from my career, it triggers a lot of memories. People will look at the pictures and read the stories in this book and relive it all. They'll be able to say where they were when the Rockets had their first playoff victory, and when the Rockets won those championships.

My mom used to tell me about the importance of reading, but I didn't like to read-it took too much time. I didn't start to enjoy reading until I got to the NBA, because we had so much free time due to all the travel. Years from now, my children's children's children will read this book and, "Great-Granddaddy wad pretty good!" They'll also see what I looked like with hip-hugger shorts; my grandson already asks, "Granddaddy, why couldn't you find shorts that fit?"

It's important to put things down and to record history. My great-grandmother used to tell me the history of our family, stories about how things were before my time and how things were before my time and how things came to be. This book shows and tells the story of our Rockets family. The team has a strong, rich tradition in Houston, but there are a lot of Rockets fans who probably don't know many of the great players, memorable moments, or interesting facts, like the team starting out in San Diego.

I love the Rockets. I am proud to be part of the story both in the past and also in the present, and I am looking forward to what the future holds.
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TLDR version- Murphy is great.

Book is 50 at the Rockets shop and makes a great Christmas gift for any fan. Has some great pictures and some interesting stories that if you weren't around for, seemed to be lost with time.

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Calvin Murphy's Foreword-50 Seasons Book

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