June 6, 2031
14 years to the day of the Rockets first and (to date) only CSL Championship, the Houston Rockets held a special event at the Toyota Center, honoring retired stars James Harden, Kenneth Faried, and Andre Iguodala for their contributions, and holding an official jersey retirement ceremony.
The fourth CSL champions, the Rockets were a team built around dominant scorer James Harden averaging 35ppg, playing at a fast pace, and a defense focused on versatility, including Andre Iguodala, Kenneth Faried, Roy Devyn Marble, Al-Farouq Aminu, Paul Millsap, all of whom could guard multiple positions and contribute well offensively. The 2016-17 Rockets went 69-13 in the regular season, despite missing Harden for 20 games, and losing versatile (and recently maxed) PF Thaddeus Young a month into the season with a devastating injury. There was a 24-game winning streak in there as well.
That team survived the scare of all scares in the first round, dropping two home games to an 8-seed Spurs missing Kevin Durant, but rallied back to win 4 straight, and then sweep the Timberwolves, then went the distance with the Kings and then the Pistons, emerging victorious in an incredibly hard-fought battle (that the Pistons would win the next year in the Finals rematch in 2018).
James Harden was obviously the centerpiece of it all. Harden attacked defense in a way nobody else in CSL history previously could - averaging over a point per minute , and upped his scoring to 37.5ppg on 64.8 TS% in the post season. He hunted mismatches at will, whether they came at point guard or power forward, after adding strength in the offseason to bulk up to a massive 233 pounds, while the entire team defense of Houston was built around mitigating the struggles he had on defense.
Harden played 6 full seasons for Houston in the CSL before being dealt to Dallas . A few years later, he would return in free agency, again making the conference finals but falling just a few points short of a finals trip at the hands of the 2023-24 Phoenix Suns. The next season would end prematurely with a torn Achilles a few weeks in, leading to a trade with the Clippers where he never played. All in all, Harden scored 14,144 regular season points for Houston across just over 7 seasons, trailing only Malik Monk's 17k + points in 10 seasons.
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Kenneth "Manimal" Faried played just over 3 full seasons with the Rockets, giving them an incredibly consistent big man who could play both ends really well. Playing as an undersized center, Faried was a highly versatile defender, one of the league's premier rebounders, and an extremely efficient mid-usage scorer. He was thrust into this role by the Rockets trading Dwight Howard, and he did admirably on all fronts.
On the title team, Faried scored 16.8ppg, 10.4rpg, as well as 2.6 stocks on 55.2% from the field. Faried upped those numbers through most of the playoffs, but battled through back spasms in most of the finals, particularly limited in games 4-6, before dropping a 20/10 in the Game 7. His 3 Rockets playoff runs resulted in a WCF loss, a Title, and a Game 7 loss in the Finals. Faried got to end his career in Houston, coming back for 1 regular season game and 1 playoff game in 2025-26.
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Andre Iguodala's stats never jumped off the page, but he embodied everything that era (and the current era, for that matter), of the Rockets valued in a player. While Iggy was on the athletic decline, he still played out of his mind on defense, was asked to regularly run point, put pressure on the rim with his drives, and just act as a "connector" for the whole team. Despite struggling with his 3s during this season, Iggy averaged 14/4/5 and was usually tasked with guarding the best perimeter player regardless of position.
Iguodala would play 4.5 seasons in Houston after the Warriors traded him and others for DeMarcus Cousins after the league's inaugural season. Iguodala would only play parts of two seasons with Denver, New Orleans, and Miami before retiring in 2020.
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As an honorable mention, Rockets general manager KW reached out to long-time forward Al-Farouq Aminu about retiring his #0, but Aminu declined, insisting that the Rockets were always Harden, Iguodala, and Faried's team and he was just along for the ride. But we'll mention him here, as his 9 seasons as a Rocket have only ever been surpassed by Malik Monk in the CSL. He was a highly dependable defender, rebounder, and was a very underrated offensive player, who averaged as much as 14ppg in 2015-16, 9.3rpg in 2018-19, and 49% from the field in 2017-18. Aminu always played above his talent level, and was a fan favorite in all three of his stints with the team.
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2028
