Former Rockets Tracking Thread

Which Rockets teammate was most likely to be late? Which player tried to avoid paying for dinner? These are the answers we didn't know we needed. Apologies to Clyde Drexler and Scott Brooks.

Playing something the show's skilled conductor Ernie Johnson called the Teammate Game, Charles Barkley and Johnson asked Smith and Horry questions about people they played with in their Rockets days and did the same for Horry and Shaquille O'Neal about the Lakers.

Coming clean about which Rockets teammate was usually tardy seemed like an easy one with Horry not even hesitating to write down his answer: Drexler.

Before Smith wrote down his response, Barkley joked, "Hope you have a mirror over there," because the former Rockets point guard has a reputation for being late to the show. Begrudgingly, Smith wrote down himself, but after seeing his teammate's answer, he quickly agreed.

"It was Clyde without question," said Smith, joking that he was too scared to be late back then especially with Olajuwon's intimidating presence in the locker room.

Horry said Drexler was so consistently late, they started lying to the Hall of Famer about what time practice started.

"We told Clyde practice started at 10:30 just so he would be on time for an 11 o’clock practice," he said. "Everybody knew it was 11, but we told Clyde 10:30."

The cheapest player on those teams also was an easy one with both of them agreeing on Brooks, Smith's backup point guard. Smith originally went with Sam Cassell because he was a rookie and expected the veterans to pick up the checks, but Smith was reminded by Horry about Brooks' short arms when the bill showed up at the table.

“Oh, Scottie Brooks didn’t pick up no checks either,” said Smith, while changing his answer. “I forgot about that. Scottie was cheap as hell. God dang. Scottie was cheap.”

Barkley followed with a story about stopping Brooks from renting a condo when the young point guard was trying to make the 76ers roster, letting Brooks stay with him instead, "because I knew he wasn't going to make the team."

Barkley followed by saying he loves Brooks.

"Love you, cheapie," Smith said.

With Horry on set, it also was time to settle a dispute from last year when Smith said he was the voice of those Rockets teams. This time, both Horry and Smith said Maxwell was the voice.

"So, you were lying all those years," Barkley said to Smith. "You've been walking around for years saying you were the voice of the team."

Smith clarified that Maxwell was the voice until he left in the middle of the 1995 playoffs.

"First championship, it was Mad Max," Horry said. "Second championship, it was collective."