Houston Rockets Mount Rushmore

DMo 4 times.

 

Hakeem and Harden are easy.

Yao was the signature player from a whole era of Rockets basketball and, worldwide, maybe the team's most popular players ever.

Slot in Rudy T as the last one. Gets points for being part of an earlier era of Rockets basketball, and also, the championship teams deserve more than one representative.

Tough to leave out Moses, T-Mac, and Clyde but, IDK, you do put these things together and you realize the Rockets have had a lot of great players over the years, but a lot of them spent the bulk of their best days with other teams. We do a lot of superstar rentals around here, historically

 

Calvin Murphy, Rudy Tomjanovich, Yao Ming, Allen Leavell


Lifers only baby

 

JH can be on there but it has to be Fat Harden.

 

Hakeem Olajuwon
James Harden
Clyde Drexler
Moses Malone
@tinman

 

Terrence Williams, Royce White, Ty Lawson, Melo

 

Hakeem Olajuwon
Rudy Tomjanovich
Yao Ming
James Harden

But what do I know, I was born in 1992.

 

where is my main man, AL?

 

boomitch, you only get 4.

 

Olajuwon
Harden
Moses
Rudy T

 

1. Hakeem
2. Rudy
3. Harden
4. Calvin

Those would be my 4 today. Rudy above Harden because he coached as well....honorable mentions.

Yao
Elvin Hayes
Moses
Sampson


DD

 

Remove Lin and he'll serve as the motivational speaker for the other 4

 

All time Rockets starting 5:

Yao Ming
Hakeem Olajuwon (athletic enough to play the 4)
Tracy McGrady
James Harden
Steve Francis

Honorable mentions: Charles Barkley, Clyde Drexler, Moses Malone, Rudy T, Popeye Jones

 

Sorry, I misread the question. Mount Rushmore is:

Hakeem Olajuwon
James Harden
Tracy McGrady
Yao Ming

 

Sound reasoning, great choices. Rudy T is impossible to leave out -- a stud player, 5-time all-star, who almost got killed on the court while trying to make peace, and came back strong, and obviously our greatest coach ever (though we have had some other greats there too)... He's pretty much Mr. Rockets in my mind. Absolutely pure pedigree, Rockets to the core.

The Rockets Mt. Rushmore isn't the same as the all-time starting 5, to me. It's about players and anyone else who had the most overall impact on Rockets history and culture.

Moses vs Yao is my most difficult decision. I'd love to include Clyde, after all he was pivotal to that second chip, and has that golden Phi Slama Jama pedigree, but such a short tenure here makes it hard... Being a Rockets life, Yao had me leaning his way, but Moses is one of the greatest players of all time, won 2 MVPs with us (though Yao was playing at an MVP level before his last injury did him in) and Moses did more with less than almost anyone in Rockets history, in his 6 years here. He didn't ask to be traded to Philly. So Moses is my 4th choice. But it's hard leaving Yao off.

Calvin gets real consideration too, another "Mr. Rockets" type player and announcer. Just not as impactful as the rest, but Calvin vs. Yao is an interesting discussion. Stats-wise, they are not far apart. Yao would get my nod there though, for overall impact.

And I love T-Mac too, but as great as he was, I just can't put him over any of these guys... There were definitely a few issues during his tenure. Beard had some issues too, but his accomplishments are undeniable.

If it came down to T-Mac vs. Calvin for a spot, who would you pick?

 

Hakeem
Yao
Harden
Tmac

 

Francis over 17-18 CP3?

 

The Houston Rockets win championships. Only those that brought the trophy home get to be on it. Dream, Clyde, Rudy T and Carl Herrera.

 

Think you have to consider tourism and entertainment. Yao will get visitors. And Clyde gives it additional street cred.

Yao
Clyde
TMac
Harden

Rudy T can have a room under the monument.

But I don't know where you will find the rock to do this. The biggest problem will be that Hakeem can't be idolized in the form of a statue. So the whole thing is ding donged because the Christians loved their statues too much.