Houston Rockets: Top 15 Greatest All-Time (1-5)

Feb 12, 2015; Houston, TX, USA; NBA former player

works on a broadcast during the game between the Houston Cougars and the Southern Methodist Mustangs at Hofheinz Pavilion. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

3. Elvin “The Big E” Hayes

Even though the legendary Pat Riley was the first player ever drafted for the Rockets, you’d definitely say that Elvin Hayes was the first franchise player the Rockets had landed via the draft. He taken with the No. 1 pick in 1968 when the franchise was in San Diego and he comes in at #3 on the Rockets all-time list. Hayes was a 12-time All-Star and in seven seasons with the team averaging 20.3 points per game and 12.2 rebounds per game.

Another Rockets star with roots deep in H-Town, he started his career being featured for four seasons as the University of Houston’s most dominant big men in history.

He was a scoring and rebounding machine his entire career, averaging 31.0 PPG and 17.0 PPG at UH alone.

He was also part of what has been dubbed as the “Game of the Century” a seasonal January 1968 match up between UH and UCLA, the two top basketball teams in the country, ranked No. 2 and No. 1 respectively. Both were undefeated at the time.

Two of the greatest NCAA basketball coaches, UH’s Guy Lewis and UCLA’s John Wooden were squaring off along with the college basketball’s most-talented centers in Hayes and a guy named Lew Alcindor (now known of course as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar).

The stage was set at the Houston Astrodome in front of a crowd of more than 52,000 spectators, being the first NCAA basketball game ever being nationally-televised with legendary hoop heads Dick Enberg and Bob Petit on the call.

The Cougars upset the Bruins 71-69 and snapped UCLA’s long-standing, 47-game win streak but that game — a relatively new idea of sports marketing — paved the way for immense national TV coverage of college basketball for what we now know today as “March Madness.”

Hayes faced the Bruins once again in the NCAA Tourney Semifinals that same year but fell 101-69 just one game short of the championship game.

As far as his NBA career, he had two tours of duty with the Rockets from 1968-72 (four seasons) and 1981-84 (three seasons).

Hayes also made the illustrious top 50 players of all-time list back with the likes of Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, etc.

When talking about Rockets greats his name often gets lost in the shuffle as time has passed, but with the talent that he had and being able to be versatile enough to play the power forward and the center position, Hayes No. 3 ranking is quite deserving.

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