The Houston Rockets play basketball.
The 1981 NBA World Championship Series was the championship round of the 1980 -- 81 NBA season , pitting the 62-win Boston Celtics against the 40-42 Houston Rockets . Houston Rockets . The Rockets acquired all-star forward Charles Barkley in 1996 , but the presence of three of the NBA 's 50 greatest players of all-time ( Olajuwon , Drexler , and Barkley ) was not enough to propel Houston past the Western Conference Finals . The power forward ( PF ) , also known as the four , is one of the five positions in a regulation basketball game .