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The Houston Rockets are an American professional basketball team based in Houston, Texas. The team plays in the Southwest Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association (NBA). The team was established in 1967, and played in San Diego, California for four years, before moving to Houston, Texas. In the Rockets' debut season, they won 15 games. After drafting Elvin Hayes first overall in the 1968 NBA Draft, they made their first appearance in the playoffs in 1969. After Hayes was traded, Moses Malone replaced him. Malone won two Most Valuable Player (MVP) awards during his time in Houston, and he led the Rockets to the 1978 conference finals in his first year with the Rockets. He also took the Rockets to the NBA Finals in 1981, but they were defeated in six games by the Boston Celtics. Two years after advancing to the finals, the Rockets won a franchise-low 14 games.〔 In 1985, the Rockets drafted future Hall of Famer Hakeem Olajuwon, who led them to the 1986 Finals in his rookie year, where they lost again to Boston. In the next seven seasons, they lost in the first round of the playoffs five times. They did not win their first championship until 1994, when Olajuwon led them to a franchise-best 58 wins, and the championship. The Rockets repeated the feat in 1995, but in the following seasons, they did not advance to the finals again. They missed the playoffs from 1999 to 2003, and did not reach the playoffs again until they drafted Yao Ming in 2003. However, they would not advance past the first round of the playoffs for 13 years. In the 2007-08 NBA season, the Rockets had their most successful campaign in the 2000s, winning 55 games, with 22 of those victories in a row, but still lost in the first round. The following season, the team managed to win a playoff series for the first time since 1997, defeating the Portland Trail Blazers in the first round of the 2009 NBA Playoffs and pushed the eventual champion Los Angeles Lakers to seven games in the 2009 Western Conference Semifinals. During the next decade, the Rockets rehauled their roster and were again contenders for the NBA title. In the 2014-15 NBA season, led by head coach Kevin McHale and guard James Harden, the Rockets won their first division title in 21 years, and reached the Western Conference Finals for the first time since 1997. ==San Diego Rockets (1967–1971)== The Rockets were founded in 1967 in San Diego, and after being bought by Robert Breitbard for 1.75 million dollars,〔 they joined the NBA as an expansion team for the 1967–68 NBA season, along with the Seattle SuperSonics.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Going Retro: Houston Rockets )〕 The resulting contest to name the franchise chose the name "Rockets", homaging San Diego's theme of "a city in motion" and the local arm of General Dynamics developing the Atlas missile and booster rocket program.〔 Breitbard brought in Jack McMahon, then coach of the Cincinnati Royals, to serve as the Rockets' coach and general manager.〔〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Jack McMahon )〕 The team then built its roster with both veteran players at an expansion draft, and college players in the 1967 NBA draft,〔 where San Diego's first ever draft pick was Pat Riley.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Houston Rockets Draft Register )〕〔 The Rockets' inaugural game was held on October 14, 1967 at the San Diego Sports Arena, with 8000 fans seeing the Rockets lose closely to the St. Louis Hawks by 99-98.〔 The Rockets lost 70 games in their inaugural season,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=1967–68 San Diego Rockets )〕 which was then an NBA record for losses in a season. Attendance ranked as eighth among the league's twelve teams, leading to financial losses. The sole bright spot of the inaugural season was forward Don Kojis, whose good numbers earned him a spot at the 1968 NBA All-Star Game.〔 In 1968, after the Rockets won a coin toss against the Baltimore Bullets to determine who would have the first overall pick in the 1968 NBA Draft, they selected Elvin Hayes from the University of Houston. Hayes led the team to the franchise's first ever playoff appearance in 1969, but the Rockets lost in the semi-finals of the Western Division to the Atlanta Hawks, four games to two.〔 In 1970 NBA Draft, the Rockets drafted Calvin Murphy and Rudy Tomjanovich, who would both spend their whole careers with the Rockets. Despite being coached by Hall of Fame coach Alex Hannum, the Rockets only tallied a 57–97 record and did not make the playoffs in the next two seasons. Because of poor performance and attendance, Breitbard sold the team in 1971 to Texas Sports Investments, which was led by real estate broker Wayne Duddleston and banker Billy Goldberg. The group bought the franchise for $5.6 million, and immediately moved the team to Houston.〔 The franchise became the first NBA team in Texas, and the team's nickname of "Rockets" took on even greater relevance after the move since Houston is home to NASA's Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=What's In a Name?: A LOOK AT THE STORIES BEHIND THE NAMES OF NBA TEAMS )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of the Houston Rockets」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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