Rudy T in the House -- 50th Anniv Honoree, Friday Game v NOLA

Nice.



"You can go ahead and walk a few paces in front of me, Mike. I'm Royalty around here."



Is his 50th Anniversary tribute coming up? Thought they'd do the banner guys last.

 

btw: I'm beginning to think that every day JVG doesn't use the phrase "It's an outrage to me", a kitten dies.

 

Rudy is here as 50th Anniversary Honoree on Friday vs Nola (thread title edited)
(side note: @KlutchQT now it really sucks Boogie didn't show on the game you bought, instead of going Friday for Davis and Rudy T.)

Here's the full Jonathan Feigen September article of those quotes above, with more. And another article coming out today

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/spo...ays-Rudy-Tomjanovich-should-be-in-9515755.php -- September, 2016

 

Feigen just updated his article with new awesome quotes by Rudy. Very eloquent response to demands of other to put him in HOF. The quote of his life in LA is funny, too

http://www.chron.com/sports/rockets...-T-in-Hall-10798922.php?cmpid=twitter-desktop -- December 15th, 2016

As Rockets coach Mike D'Antoni made his way to the Toyota Center practice court with Rudy Tomjanovich, passing the team pictures and All Star photographs that adorn that hallway, he told Tomjanovich that he seemed to be in the vast majority of those photos.

It did not take a glance at the wall Rockets players pass on every practice day to know Tomjanovich's place in Rockets history. D'Antoni, however, had another place for another Tomjanovich portrait in mind.

"He's won two titles," D'Antoni said on Thursday, a day before Tomjanovich will be the Rockets' 50th anniversary honoree during Friday's game against the Pelicans. "He's won a gold medal (in the Olympics) as a coach. An unbelievable player. He should be in the Hall of Fame. A lot of guys are in there that are not half as good as he has been. There's no reason he should not be in there."

D'Antoni has made that argument since he saw that the banners honoring Rockets with retired numbers did not include the words "Hall of Fame" beneath Tomjanovich's No. 45. Former Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy made the same argument. He stood on the steps of Springfield Symphony Hall during the red carpet arrival for this summer's induction ceremony and said "It's an outrage to me that Rudy T is not in the Hall of Fame."

D'Antoni and Van Gundy had not been asked about Tomjanovich's worthiness for Springfield when they forcefully made their argument. Tomjanovich has heard those sentiments expressed over the years, and especially when Yao Ming was inducted in September. But he said he will have no regrets if he never gets his turn to take his place in the Hall.

"It's something that is uncomfortable to talk about, about yourself," Rudy said. "I just don't do it. If it never happened, it isn't going to change how grateful and how wonderful everything was in my life. It isn't going to change the wonderful feelings I have for what happened here with the Rockets, the championships. I just don't spend a lot of time thinking about (the Hall of Fame.)

"I hear it once in a while, a couple times a year. Nice people say nice things. I'm very humbled by that."​

The Rockets have been honoring a player or coach from their past during every home game. Tomjanovich will be the first honoree who starred for the Rockets as both. He still lives in Los Angeles, providing analytics for the Lakers. But his entire NBA playing career and greatest coaching success was in Houston.

"It's nice to come back," Tomjanovich said. "I live a completely different life in LA. That's being anonymous. Once in a while, somebody will do a double take. I usually say, 'You saw one of my movies, huh?' They say, "Was he in that, I've seen him somewhere.' But here, it's completely different. As soon as I walked into the airport. Even people who are too young to know. They're in their 20s. They had to be toddlers back then."​

Back then, the Rockets won two championships under Tomjanovich, but on the wall to the Rockets' practice court, there are the reminders of a career that ran from when he was a sweet-shooting rookie to a local icon.

"Rudy's been an NBA fixture for the last 50 years, it seemed like," D'Antoni said. "I told him, every picture on that wall out there, he was in. That means he's old.

"He's been great for Houston. He's had an unbelievable career."​

 

Reminder that it's Rudy T day at Toyota Center

Wear Rudy T if you got it.