1998–99 Houston Rockets season

The 1998–99 NBA season was the 32nd season for the Houston Rockets in the National Basketball Association and their 28th season in Houston, Texas. Due to a lockout, the regular season began on February 5, 1999, and was cut from 82 games to 50.

The Rockets had three first-round draft picks in the 1998 NBA draft, selecting shooting guard Michael Dickerson from the University of Arizona with the fourteenth overall pick, point guard Bryce Drew out of Valparaiso University with the sixteenth overall pick, and power forward, and Turkish basketball star Mirsad Türkcan with the eighteenth overall pick; the team also drafted shooting guard Cuttino Mobley from the University of Rhode Island with the 41st overall pick in the second round. However, Türkcan never played for the Rockets, and was later on traded to the Philadelphia 76ers.

To replace the retiring Clyde Drexler, the Rockets acquired All-Star forward, and six-time champion Scottie Pippen from the Chicago Bulls, and signed free agent Antoine Carr, who previous had two NBA Finals appearances with the Utah Jazz. Pippen, Hakeem Olajuwon and Charles Barkley had previously played together on the U.S. Men's basketball team in the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia.

With the addition of Pippen, the Rockets got off to a 6–2 start to the regular season, but then lost five of their next seven games. At mid-season, the team traded second-year guard Rodrick Rhodes to the Vancouver Grizzlies in exchange for three-point specialist, and former Rockets guard Sam Mack. The Rockets played solid basketball posting a nine-game winning streak in March, and finished in third place in the Midwest Division with a 31–19 record, earning the #5 seed in the Western Conference. The Rockets had the fifth best team offensive rating in the NBA.

Olajuwon averaged 18.9 points, 9.6 rebounds and 2.5 blocks per game, and was named to the All-NBA Third Team, while Barkley averaged 16.1 points and led the team with 12.3 rebounds per game, and Pippen provided the team with 14.5 points, 6.5 rebounds, 5.9 assists and 2.0 steals per game. In addition, Dickerson provided with 10.9 points per game, while Mobley contributed 9.9 points per game, as both players were named to the NBA All-Rookie Second Team. Off the bench, Othella Harrington averaged 9.8 points and 6.4 rebounds per game, and Brent Price contributed 7.3 points and 2.8 assists per game. Three-point specialist Matt Maloney only played just 15 games this season due to an elbow injury.

However, in the Western Conference First Round of the 1999 NBA playoffs, the Rockets lost in four games to the Los Angeles Lakers; after the defeat, the Rockets would not return to the NBA playoffs until 2004. Pippen spent only one season with the Rockets, as he and Barkley had trouble getting along as teammates.

Following the season, Pippen was traded to the Portland Trail Blazers, while Dickerson, Harrington, Carr and Price were all traded to the Vancouver Grizzlies, Mack and Maloney were both released to free agency, as Maloney signed as a free agent with the Chicago Bulls midway through the next season, and Eddie Johnson retired.