The Houston Rockets joined the NBA in 1967 as the San Diego Rockets, and moved to Houston in 1971, where they have been located ever since.
In the first four drafts the Rockets participated in, each team had a total of 90 draft choices (14 in 1967, and 19 each from 1968 to 1971). For two drafts in 1972 and 1973, there were eight rounds, from 1974 to 1976 and 1978 to 1984, the draft was 10 rounds long.[1] However, in 1985, the draft was shortened to seven rounds, and in 1989, the NBA agreed with the National Basketball Players' Association to limit drafts to two rounds, an arrangement that has remained the same up the present time.[2] Before each draft, an NBA draft lottery determines the first round selection order for the teams that missed the playoffs during the prior season.[2] Teams can also trade their picks, which means that in some drafts teams may have more or less than two draft picks, although they must have at least one first-round pick every other year.[3]
In 1968, the Rockets selected Elvin Hayes, who became an eventual Hall of Famer and one of the NBA's 50 Greatest Players, with the first pick of the draft.[4] The Rockets again had the first pick of the draft in 1984, after winning a coin flip for the first pick against the Portland Trail Blazers, and they used it to select Hakeem Olajuwon, who later led the Rockets to two consecutive NBA championships in 1994 and 1995.[5] In 2002, the Rockets won the first pick of the 2002 NBA draft through the lottery, and they chose Yao Ming, who became a six-time All-Star[6] before his career was prematurely ended by chronic foot and ankle injuries.[7]
| Abbreviation | Meaning |
| PG | Point guard |
| SG | Shooting guard |
| SF | Small forward |
| PF | Power forward |
| C | Center |
| Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer | First Overall NBA Draft Pick | Selected for an NBA All-Star Game |
