Houston Rockets: 25 Best Players To Play For The Rockets

He was the next big thing. A 7-foot-4 center that was also athletic. A three-time consensus national player of the year, Ralph Sampson had averaged 19 points and almost 12 rebounds per game as a senior at Virginia.

The Houston Rockets, winners of the coin flip for the top pick, took Sampson with the first overall pick in the 1983 NBA Draft.

For awhile, he

was

the next big thing, earning Rookie of the Year honors in 1983-84. He was a four-time All-Star with the Rockets—named MVP of the 1985 All-Star Game—and was an All-NBA selection in 1984-85.

Sampson was fifth in the NBA in rebounding in 1983-84 and 1985-86 and third in blocks in 1983-84 and, after Hakeem Olajuwon was drafted in 1984, was the tallest power forward in history as half of Houston’s Twin Towers.

He helped the Rockets reach the NBA Finals in 1986, averaging 14.8 points, 9.5 rebounds, 3.3 assists and a steal in 32.2 minutes per game, shooting .438/—/.731 in a six-game loss to the Boston Celtics.

But he never made it all the way back from a serious knee injury in 1987 and in December of that year was traded with Steve Harris to the Golden State Warriors for Joe Barry Carroll, Sleepy Floyd and cash.

In parts of five seasons in Houston, Sampson averaged 19.7 points, 10.5 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 1.9 blocks and a steal in 35 minutes per game, shooting .499/.147/.661.

Sampson was traded to the Sacramento Kings in September 1989 and, after being waived in October 1991, signed with the Washington Bullets the following month.

He was waived in January 1992, playing the remainder of the season in Spain. He tried a comeback in the Continental Basketball Association in 1994-95, but retired at the end of the season.

Sampson was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2012. He is 45th in NBA history with an average of 1.6 blocks per game.

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