The Houston Rockets are a professional basketball team based in Houston, Texas. The Rockets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Western Conference Southwest Division. The franchise was established in 1967 and has won two NBA championships, four Western Conference titles, and four division titles. Since their first season in 1967–68, they have played at Toyota Center as their home arena. The Rockets were founded by Robert Breitbard who also owned the San Diego Rockets of the American Basketball Association (ABA).
In 1972, Breitbard sold the franchise to Texas Sports Investments for $5.6 million dollars, which had been acquired by John J McLendon Jr., owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers and former coach of both San Diego State University and UCLA men’s basketball teams. After McLendon’s death in 1979, ownership was transferred to his widow Delores Fertitta who sold it to Leslie Alexander for $85 million dollars in 1993; this transaction made Alexander one of the richest owners in NBA history at that time. Under Alexander’s leadership, the Rockets rose from obscurity to become one of the most successful franchises in NBA history winning back-to-back championships during its championship run from 1994-1995 led by Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler.
During this period they also achieved several other notable accomplishments such as setting an all-time record for three pointers made during a game with 23 against Seattle SuperSonics on December 11th 1997; playing 22 straight wins between February 6th 2008 and March 20th 2008; recording 22 consecutive 50+ win seasons dating back to 1990–91 season; appearing eight times in conference finals including five years straight from 2014 – 2018; having seven players make it into Hall of Fame—Olajuwon being inducted twice—and having 10 retired jerseys hanging inside Toyota Center: Calvin Murphy (#23), Rudy Tomjanovich (#45), Moses Malone (#24), Elvin Hayes (#44), Ralph Sampson (#50), Hakeem Olajuwon (#34) , Clyde Drexler (#22), Yao Ming (#11), Tracy McGrady(#1) and James Harden(#13).
Aside from their successes on court up until recent years when James Harden was traded from Oklahoma City Thunder after 2012–13 season began for Kevin Martin , Jeremy Lamb , two future first round picks which turned out be Steven Adams (2013 draft) and Mitch McGary (2014 draft) . Since then he has been named MVP once while leading them to seven consecutive playoff appearances including conference finals twice but failed to reach Finals after losing 4–2 against Golden State Warriors 2015 where they held 3–2 lead before losing games six & seven respectively .
As 2019 – 2020 came along many changes occurred including hiring new Head Coach Mike D’Antoni , signing free agent point guard Chris Paul alongside center Clint Capela & acquiring Russell Westbrook via trade with Oklahoma City Thunder bringing expectations higher than ever before . That year proved more successful than previous ones reaching 2019 – 2020 playoffs only get eliminated by Los Angeles Lakers 4–1 despite taking 1 game off them . This proves that Houston Rockets still remain one of best franchises NBA has offer even though changes took place recently .