Do you consider Yao Ming to be in the top five greatest Rockets?

Lol, very nice! Someones into MJ??

 

East No for me...

 

I suppose it all depends on your criteria for what makes someone one of the greatest.
Most people will probably use championships as the main requirement....therefore you'd probably pick five players from the title team. In addition, we yet to know if Yao will finish his career with a ring(s). I would think many, to all of us, hope at least the first comes this season.


Or perhaps, based on individual talent/overall impact(on and off the court) then you probably will have a different list of players.
Of course you have your automatic givens......like HO.

After thinking about the question....I really don't know.

 

I usually do not quote long posts but this one is worth quoting. I agree.

For those of you who consider Yao to be in their top 5, consider what he has to show for it so far...

1) Somewhat rough and inconsistent 1st round against Mavs. 1st round exit.
2) A rough 1st round against Okur/Boozer and the Jazz. Got killed on defense and wasnt very impressive on offense either. 1st round exit.
3) Dominant 1st game against the Blazers and then a mediocre performance rest of series once Blazers switched to fronting defense. Passed 1st round for the first and only time. Inured and out in 2nd round.
4) Multiple injuries and several games missed in regular season and playoffs.
5) Never really a consistent dominant player for a long stretch in his career. A player with many ups and downs and plenty of frustrations along the way.

If you want the player with the track record above to be called one of the top 5 greatest Rockets, you have a franchise with a very weak history.

20 years from now, even players like Cassell and Horry will be known for their big plays and big shots while Yao will be known as the 7'6 center who...

....was decent but often injured.

Top 5 greatest Rockets as a person? Absolutely.
Top 5 greatest Rockets as a player? Let's keep it real.

 

No love for Shawn Respert?

For real:

1. Olajuwon
2. Malone
3. Murphy
4. Drexler
5. Hayes (I'd put him higher if I knew more about him, however I'm just going off the history books by putting him here).

 

I personally would put Tracy ahead of Yao still. if we're purely looking at statistical accomplishments while they both were here tracy takes the cake by far. But Tracy is definitely not top 5 best player in our history..maybe top 5 best talent, I'd only really put hakeem ahead of him there.

 

Hakeem obviously is the greatest Rocket but after that it's tougher.

I'd rank Calvin Murphy as two because of his time with the team, but Moses was clearly a better player. Hayes too. And Drexler didn't have a lot of time but man, he would have been number 2 behind Hakeem if the Rockets didn't draft Rodney McCray ahead of him. Yao is definitely in the top 10 - you look at what he does and how he turns us from a non-playoff team into a 2nd round team - and that deserves a lot of props as well as his time here. Rudy T deserves some respect - a very good player and a very good coach.

T-mac is also for consideration - it didn't end well but he had some great years too. Same with Francis and Ralph Sampson

After that you have the championship guys.

 

That was pretty sick
i found this tight beat
to go with the words that you spit...

Spoiler

<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/5T_AF_BXijo&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/5T_AF_BXijo&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>

 

Yeah, I'd heard that, now that you mention it. I also forgot to mention that Murph wasn't shabby at the line, either.

 

Rudy Tomjanovich - A great Rockets player as well as the team's greatest coach. Embodied what a Rocket was for so many years. I still think he's the greatest Rocket of all. What better definition of a Rocket than being drafted by the Rockets, then becoming a scout for them, then an assistant coach, then head coach. Coach of the back-to-back championship teams. A shame he's not in the Rockets organization now.

Hakeem Olajuwon - The greatest player ever to don a Rockets uniform. Gave Houston its only two real championships. Rankings in Rockets record books (from basketball-reference.com) :

#1 Games Played
#1 Minutes Played
#1 Field Goals Made
#1 Field Goals Attempted
#10 FG%
#1 Free Throws Made
#1 Free Throw Attempts
#1 Offensive Rebounds
#1 Defensive Rebounds
#1 Total Rebounds (duh)
#3 Assists
#1 Steals
#1 Blocks
#1 Points
#7 Minutes per Game
#3 Points per Game
#4 Rebounds per Game
#2 Steals per Game
#1 Blocks per Game
#1 PER
#1 Offensive Win Shares (if you believe in the stat)
#1 Defensive Win Shares (if you believe in the stat)
#1 Win Shares (if you believe in the stat)

And... the Student of :

Moses Malone - The Teacher. One of the last great scorer/rebounders to play in the NBA. One of the last great enforcers in the middle. This dude was the definition of "work" in the post. Brought his lunchbag and went to work like a man in the middle. This was back when men patrolled the paint.

Calvin Murphy - Mighty Mite... the Pocket Rocket... possibly one of the smallest, yet toughest Rockets to don the uniform. Took it into the paint on people that could squash him. And in an era where you could get seriously hurt for doing so. Gotta have respect for that. Hell of a baton twirler and boxer, too. :grin:

Gene Peterson and Jim Foley : Greatest broadcasting duo ever. They were in the Rockets organization longer than many of the people posting in this thread have probably been alive. Awesome pbp and are truly missed.

Honorable Mention : Carroll Dawson simply for the years he put in for the organization and the big man coach he was. He made some dud deals, but the guy was more of a Rocket than damn near every player that played for the team.

No other player in Rockets history is close to any in the above group... none!

 

If you include Barkley, would Rick Barry receive consideration?

 

Hakeem
Moses
Drexler
Elvin Hayes
Rudy Tomjanovich
Calvin Murphy
Mario Elie
Sam Cassell
Robert Horry
Yao Ming

 

Elvin Hayes made cameos on the Rockets. He did not impact the trajectory of the franchise. He was a great player with the Bullets. But he did not lead the Rockets anywhere. I do not believe he is anywhere near Calvin, Dream, Rudy and Moshé. Keny Smith and Vernon Maxwell - arguably - made as big an impact; they helped move a middling 500 team (with Hakeem in his prime, dont forget...) into a championship team.

People forget that - Hakeem was, over the course of a season, past his prime in 1994-95-96. He could dominate, he put up numbers, but it was not the same as 86-92, when he showed up and ruled the freaking court all season long. That supporting cast was not a bunch of stiffs. Robert Horry was a big deal. So was the much-maligned Kenny Smith; he managed that offense very, very well.

Elvin Hayes was great, but he did not help the Rockets change the league the way those other guys did. Murph was amazing. Rudy was too, as a player and coach - he is the only you could argue had more of an impact than dear, because he was there for so many year years cumulatively. (i still put Dream #1....)

Sampson was a big deal too, he really helped make the interrupted-dynasty Rockets of 1986 what they were: Unguardable. Remember, they beat the showtime Lakers mid dynasty when they were totally healthy. Ralph was the s***. I put him above Elvin any day.

Actually, those cab commericals - 1406 Hayes Street - were totally awesome.

 

Serious question tho. I may get flamed but so what.

What has Yao actually accomplished to be considered great?
Does voted to the All-Star game count?
I don't know how many he has but how many all nba teams has he been on? do you consider that.

Or are you just looking at it generally since being on the Rockets? Cause if so Hmmm thats tough. Greatest Rockets? Top 5? With No Rings?? good luck thinking about that one. Thats tough.

 

Houston Rockets Career Leaders (from basketball-reference.com):

Offensive Win Shares
1. Hakeem Olajuwon* 69.1
2. Calvin Murphy* 67.6
3. Rudy Tomjanovich 51.9
4. Moses Malone* 50.6
5. Yao Ming 36.5

Defensive Win Shares
1. Hakeem Olajuwon* 91.6
2. Elvin Hayes* 31.4
3. Yao Ming 29.2
4. Otis Thorpe 25.0
5. Robert Reid 20.7

Win Shares
1. Hakeem Olajuwon* 160.6
2. Calvin Murphy* 84.1
3. Rudy Tomjanovich 70.4
4. Moses Malone* 70.0
5. Yao Ming 65.7

Win Shares Per 48 Minutes
1. Carl Landry 0.201
2. Yao Ming 0.200
3. Charles Barkley* 0.200
4. Moses Malone* 0.189
5. Hakeem Olajuwon* 0.180

As it stands, Olajuwon and Yao are the only two Rockets on the top 5 list in every one of the above categories. So it's not really a stretch what the thread title suggests, even if Yao's Rockets career were to end today.

But then again those are regular season stats, playoffs are a whole different animal.

 

No way! Pig Miller beats all of them hands down!

 

They are all in the top 50 of all time:

Hakeem Olajuwon
Moses Malone
Clyde Drexler
Elvin Hayes
Charles Barkley

 

So is Pippen, no?

 

tough one... I might have to take ryan bowen out and add eddie griffin