Now that Yao got his jersey retired, is T-Mac next?

In before tinman...

 

What number would Trevor Ariza wear then?

 

. . . faints.

 

#11.

Wait....

#3

Hold up....

#13

Uh..

 

Clyde had his jersey retired because he's a native Houstonian and partly for his role in Phi Slamma Jamma, he was also a big reason why the Rockets won the championship in 1995 when the team was up against a wall going in as the 6th seed and had arguably the toughest path to an NBA championship in league history while facing some of the fiercest competition the game has ever seen.

T-Mac wished he had a successful resume but unfortunately he doesn't. Couldn't even beat Boozer/D-Will and the Jazz despite having homecourt advantage. His only claim to fame with the Rockets was the dunk on Bradley in the playoffs in 2004 and 13 points in 33 seconds in a regular season game against the Spurs.

Honestly, I would like to see the Rockets retire Mad Max jersey long before I would ever want to see T-Mac retired. Mad Max had tons of memorable moments for this team and is just as deserving as Clyde if not more so, imo.

 

Clyde Drexler was born in Louisiana but was raised in Houston.

Clyde Drexler was teammates with Hakeem the Dream at University of Houston, coached by the legendary late Guy V. Lewis to a few Final Four appearances--before they were even in the NBA.

Clyde Drexler was in the consideration as the greatest SG in the NBA while he was playing, and was edged out by Jordan in their matchup in the 1992 NBA Finals.

Clyde Drexler was a strong contributing member of the 1995 Rockets team that was the first 6th seed team in NBA history to win the championship.

Clyde Drexler wore a Rockets jacket in a photo of the 50 greatest NBA players, despite being in Trailblazers record books as one of their best franchise players.



No hate towards Tracy McGrady. He got me into the Rockets and the NBA as a pre-teen and I had several pairs of his shoes. He was extremely fun to watch when he was healthy.

Unfortunately, injuries happened and his heart/effort was questionable at times. He ultimately went on to play for the Knicks, Hawks, and Pistons before playing with the Spurs--barely falling short of riding his way to a championship with them in 2013.

Yeah, he may be in the HOF soon, and he played his butt off during the 1st round of the playoffs and latter half of the 22 game winning streak. However, he is over glorified by many fans/TOFs for things such as the 13-in-33 (which ultimately meant 1 more regular season win and didn't change much).

By that logic, Josh Smith should have his jersey retired by the Rockets for leading a comeback in an elimination Game 6 vs. the Clippers in the 2015 Western conference semifinals.

 

I wouldn't retire it either, but the 22 game win streak comes to mind as a T-Mac accomplishment.

 

Basically what I said

 

Yao was putting up INSANE numbers during the first half of that streak before suffering a random foot fracture. All the credit should not go to McGrady.

 

NO.

 

Yes. Les is just waiting for him to be enshrined in the HOF.

 

Harden should be next

 

True, and I guess I should give T-Mac partial credit for that. However, that was a regular season accomplishment. It's good to have those but you also need post season accomplishments to be worthy of having your jersey hung up in the library.

 

Calvin Murphy, Moses Malone and Yao Ming never won any championships either but they got their jerseys retired by the Rockets. If you go by stats Tmac's should be retired. Winning series is useless if you don't win championships.

 

Calvin Murphy is the godfather of the Houston Rockets and Moses won two MVP awards and was the anchor of the team while playing here. I have no problem with these dudes getting their jersey retired because they were two of the guys to kickstart our franchise. Rudy needs to be in the HOF, too.

I'm still indifferent on Yao. I think he got special treatment simply because he was a global media icon and not so much for his accomplishments on the court.

 

TBH, I am not sure I'd retire his number as a Rocket. His career here is simply too short, and unlike Drexler, he doesn't have the Houston ties and doesn't have the championship ring.

That said, your history has lots of holes in there. McGrady averaged 28 ppg, 7 apg, 7 rpg in the playoffs as a Rocket. Let's not pretend that he only had a great dunk and a great game in the regular season.

 

TMac and Yao gave Rocket fans some really fun games to watch. I wasn't a fan of the way he quit on the team at the end of his time with the Rockets. But the 22 win streak came out of nowhere, bringing a new element of fun and excitement to the Rockets, and he was a scoring machine! He is seven-time NBA All-Star, seven-time All-NBA selection, and a two-time NBA scoring champion. He continues to live in Houston and has remained close to the organization. As Les gets older, and has brought the "legends" back into the fold I expect to see TMac's jersey retired after he makes HOF and after Ariza leaves.

 

TMac is probably my favorite player of all-time (Harden is closing in), but even I have doubts about whether we should retire his jersey.

 

Yet, he was never able to make it out of the first round. He had good chances too, was up 3-1 against Detroit (when he played for Orlando, mind you) and couldn't get it done. Went up 2-0 against Dallas while winning both of those games on the road and ended up losing the series. Couldn't beat a mediocre Utah Jazz squad, and was clowned on by the corpse of Andre Kirilenko in the process. Maybe its unfair to blame it all on Tmac but it was a recurring theme for him and every team he was considered the "leader" on. Even Tmac himself said "It's on me".

I think his memories here would be a lot different had he not quit on the team, the Toronto game, etc. He mailed it in, though. Duder is not a fan of retiring jerseys of guys who mail it in.