Elvin Hayes is a HOFer and top 75 player in NBA all time. It was an embarrassment that his number wasn't retired sooner. Much love to the Big E and to Tilman for righting a wrong. Embrace every part of your history!
Nah. He was on the 50th and 75th anniversary All NBA Teams. He is one of the best college players to ever play, he played locally..... was involved in one of the 5 biggest college games ever against Jabbar. He went #1 in the draft and he made 12 straight all star games to begin his career. He won an NBA title. He missed a total of only 8 games in 14 years. 5 times he was all NBA 1st team. He retired as arguably the best power forward in NBA history. His number should have been retired a long time ago.
Also averaged double double for 12 straight seasons. Unheard of at time. Also a great 2 way player. All Defense multiple times.
I think he was the 1 guy who's jersey wasn't retired, but most fans thought it should have been. Looks good to me.
I don't really think we should retire his jersey because of what he accomplished with the Bullets anymore than I think Joe Morgan should have his number retired by the Astros. Not questioning his greatness as a player, deserving of all the praise you throw on him, his resume as a Rocket falls far short of jersey retirement IMO
My two complaint would b y did it take this long for his number to be retired. I wasn't even born when he played and even i could see how good he was. The other one would b y do folks sometime like to wait for sht losing season to retire a jersey.
Elvin Hayes weirdly played for 2 franchises but with 5 different city names. SD/Houston Rockets Baltimore/Capital/Washington Bullets. Really makes you think
I think it's because most of his good pro years were with non-Houston teams. His first few seasons were with the San Diego Rockets. He only played one "peak" season here then went off to play the bulk of his stud years with Washington. He came back here to play toward the end of his career when he was in his late 30s and his career was coming to an end. He's probably more known for being a Bullet, a Cougar in "The Game of the Century", and a taxi company spokesman. As for "why wait to retire his jersey until now?" Who knows... maybe Fertitta really feels like his number should be retired... maybe they needed to drum up some publicity... maybe he's trying to build and keep history with the Rockets since what we have now are a bunch of kids with no real history with Houston. Maybe Fertitta just wanted to do a good deed with his connections with UH and the Rockets as a "thank you" to Hayes. I'm sure Chuck Hayes is ecstatic, too.
Thanks Tilman! I know Yao waited like a day to get his jersey retired, but that was because he made the owner so much chinese money
