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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 National Basketball Association (NBA). The team was established in 1967, and played in San Diego, California for four years before being moved to Houston. In the Rockets debut season, they won only 15 games. However, after drafting Elvin Hayes first overall in the 1969 NBA Draft, they made their first appearance in the playoffs in 1969. After Hayes was traded, Moses Malone was acquired to replace him. Malone won two MVPs during his time in Houston, and he led the Rockets to the conference finals in his first year with the team. He also took the Rockets to the NBA Finals in 1981, but they were defeated in six games by the Boston Celtics. In 1984, the Rockets drafted Hakeem Olajuwon, who led them to the 1986 Finals in his second year, where they lost again to Boston. In the next seven seasons, they lost in the first round of the playoffs five times. They won their first NBA championship in 1994, led by Olajuwon, who won Finals MVP. They repeated as champions the next year, and Olajuwon won Finals MVP once again. To date, the Rockets have not advanced to the finals again. The Rockets missed the playoffs from 1999–2003, and did not make the playoffs again until after they drafted Yao Ming in 2002. Since then, the Rockets have had a winning season in all but two of the next 14 seasons and, led by James Harden, advanced to the conference finals in 2015.
The following is a list of 346 players, both past and current, who have appeared in at least one game for the franchise. (Updated December 27, 2016)
Note: An asterisk (*) shows a players number that has been retired by the team.