1. Granville Waiters ( The greatest back up of all time!) Others that should be mentioned... Chucky Brown, Mark Bryant, Dikembe Mutombo, Mario Elie The next player who would step into one of these spots would be Von Wafer.
Loved Walt. He single-handedly changed the way the Rockets dressed. The red headband ere! haha. And the Wolfpack sign. Anyone have a picture of the Wolfpack sign? Somewhat stupid, probably not better than the Sura and Barry low three sign. Did Padgett do it too?
Bobby Joe Reid is my pick for best "old school" bench player during the era of my favorite Rockets team, aside from the two championship squads. That's the 3 seasons when we had a healthy Ralph Sampson, Lew Lloyd and Mitch Wiggins, with two seasons of Akeem, and about a season and a half of John Lucas. Robert had quit basketball during the 1982-83 season (and one of the reasons the Rockets were able to get Ralph). That's the year he decided to become a minister, but it didn't take. After he realized he'd rather play hoops, Reid returned to the Rockets and lost his starting gig to McCray, although he had 28 starts at the 3 in '83-'84, with fellow swingman Lew Lloyd holding down the 2 spot. From 1983-84, through the end of the 1985-86 season, Robert Reid was the most important guy off the bench (that's saying a lot, because that was a hell of a bench!), playing wherever Fitch put him, spot starting as needed, and doing an outstanding job. After the '86 Finals run, Sampson was injured and never the same, soon to be traded. Lloyd and Wiggins, 32 games into the next season, were booted from the NBA for having their collective noses in the "cookie jar," ala Lucas. That essentially brought that team to an end, as hard as it was to realize at the time, beginning Dream's journey through the wilderness.
Zan Ransom & Chris Jent, who came down under and tore up the Aussie nbl. Kevin Willis? Sam Mack and his killer 3! Should have kept Novak, he was 3rd in the league in per, but dropped to 11th the other day with a per of 23.82! Better than Gasol, Nash, Duncan, Our K-mart, Melo, Griffin, Dirk, Deron & Derrick Rose. All while posting a whopping 1.6 pts 0.6 rbs! Yay for stats! But my fond memories are from back in 94 when Sam Cassell would come in and play. And Dikembe with the finger. Class act. I love my team, Rockets fan for Life! Woooo hoooo!