Houston Rockets To Retire Elvin Hayes No. 44 Jersey
When you look back on some of the greatest players to ever play for the Houston Rockets, Hakeem Olajuwon, James Harden, Moses Malone and Yao Ming are some of the key names that come to mind.
However, the first legend to ever play for the Rockets truly was Elvin Hayes.
Drafted first overall by the San Diego Rockets in 1968 out of the University of Houston, Hayes immediately made his presence felt and was one of the most underrated legends of the early 1970s era.
On Wednesday, the Houston Rockets announced that they will be retiring Elvin Hayes’ No. 44 jersey during the 2022-23 season. He will be the seventh player in Rockets history to have his number retired, joining Yao Ming, Clyde Drexler, Calvin Murphy, Moses Malone, Rudy Tomjanovich and Hakeem Olajuwon, and the eighth overall number retired in team history, as Bill Russell’s No. 6 jersey was just retired league-wide this offseason.
His first season in the NBA, Elvin Hayes led the league in scoring at 28.4 points per game and over the course of his 16-year playing career, he averaged at least 20.0 points per game over the course of a single season ten different times. He spent a total of seven seasons with the Rockets organization.
Hayes made the All-Star Game the first twelve years of his career, he led the league in rebounds twice, he was voted to the All-NBA team six different times and he won a championship with the Washington Bullets in 1978.
“We are thrilled to celebrate Elvin Hayes’ stellar career by retiring his jersey,” Houston Rockets Owner Tilman J. Fertitta stated in a press release on Wednesday. “Elvin was the original basketball superstar in the City of Houston and has a lasting legacy with not only the NBA and the Rockets, but the University of Houston as well. We’re excited to honor Elvin and his family this November and see his jersey hang where it belongs, alongside the other legends from our franchise’s storied history.”
Averaging 21.0 points and 12.5 rebounds per game over the course of his career, Elvin Hayes is just one of four players in NBA history to average at least 21.0 points and 12.0 rebounds per game for their career, joining the likes of Elgin Baylor, Wilt Chamberlain and Bob Pettit, all of which are enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Never playing in fewer than 80 games in a season during his illustrious career, Hayes was the NBA’s all-time leader in games played (1,303) and minutes played (50,000) at the time of his retirement in 1984. He also ranked third in both scoring (27,313) and rebounding (16,279) when his career finished and ranks 11th and fourth in scoring and rebounding, respectively, today.
One of the league’s greatest talents, Elvin Hayes will forever have his name and number hanging in the rafters of the Toyota Center.
