The Houston Rockets are a basketball team.
The Houston Rockets are an American professional basketball team based in Houston , Texas . The Rockets compete in the National Basketball Association ( NBA ) , as a member of the league 's Western Conference Southwest Division . In the 1968 NBA draft , the Rockets , picking first overall , selected power forward Elvin Hayes , who would lead the team to its first playoff appearance in his rookie season . Nicknamed the `` Twin Towers '' , they led the team to the 1986 NBA Finals -- the second NBA Finals appearance in franchise history -- where Houston was again defeated by the Boston Celtics . The following season , the Rockets reinforced by another All-Star , Clyde Drexler , repeated as champions as the sixth seed in the West and swept the Orlando Magic , led by a young Shaquille O'Neal and Penny Hardaway , in four games .