Rudy Tomjanovich Makes His Hall of Fame Moment About Everyone But Himself — the Most Sharing Speech Ever Champions Robert Horry, Houston and Many More

Rudy Tomjanovich always championed the sacredness of a team. So maybe it should have been no surprise that the Houston Rockets’ only championship coach tried to bring all his players onto the grand stage with him in his Basketball Hall of Fame moment.

Tomjanovich could not physically do that. So he dropped more names during his speech than someone trying to talk his way behind a velvet rope. The basketball lifer who waited so long to get in would make his induction night about everyone but him.

Rudy T goes out of his way to mention every player who played any kind of significant role for his two-time champion Rockets by name. There are Marine drill sergeants who conduct a less effective roll call.

“I want to think Mad Max — Vernon Maxwell — for being a warrior,” Tomjanovich says.

“I want to thank Sam Cassell for having big cajones,” Tomjanovich says, drawing equally big laughs.

“I want to thank Mario Elie for being a good kisser,” Tomjanovich says, setting up the pause and putting his own hands to his lips. “Especially from the left corner.”

“I feel your spirit right here, Houston,” Rudy Tomjanovich says, patting his chest, right where his heart is.

On and on it goes, with Tomjanovich standing on the stage of the Mohegan Sun casino venue, pulling more and more people up there with him in spirit. Calvin Murphy, Tomjanovich’s former teammate, road roommate and best friend, and Hakeem Olajuwon, the best player Tomjanovich ever coached, are both actually already sitting there on the stage as the official presenters.

But that’s not enough for Rudy Tomjanovich. He will share the Hall of Fame love with many more, make sure they get a taste of his long overdue spotlight too. Tomjanovich will try to pay it forward.

He uses his moment to advocate for one of his former players’ induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame. Having waited so long to get in himself, Rudy Tomjanovich will champion the cause of Robert Horry, the Big Shot Rob of recent NBA lore.

It’s a heartfelt moment in a night full of them. (This is after all, the night that Kobe Bryant is inducted by his young widow 16 months after he died in that horrific helicopter crash that also killed eight other people.) It’s also a real Rudy T moment.

After thanking the big-name NBA coaches who championed his own Hall of Fame cause, including San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich and Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, Tomjanovich puts the weight of the greatest basketball moment in his life behind Horry.

“In that spirit, I want to speak up for Robert Horry to be inducted into the Hall of Fame,” Tomjanovich says, drawing loud applause in a socially distanced ballroom. “He’s truly a legendary player. He made so many clutch shots. He’s got seven rings to prove it.

“This is where he belongs.”

It is certainly where Rudy Tomjanovich belongs. Tomjanovich more than earned this moment. He could have made it all about him. Instead, he does his best to set the record for the most names mentioned in a Hall of Fame speech.

Yao Ming, the big man from China who changed so much for the NBA, notes how “Rudy empowered other people” in his videotaped remarks. How becomes more and more clear, the more Tomjanovich speaks. About almost everyone but himself.

Rudy Tomjanovich’s Thanking Tree

Tomjanovich, who lives in Austin these days, even works in a thank you to “my old friends and new friends” from the city. Standing up there in a dark suit and patterned tie, Tomjanovich almost looks like he could slip back into coaching the Rockets.

Instead, he’ll mention all those players by name. And then start mentioning a ton of coaches by name. Rudy Tomjanovich’s Basketball Hall of Fame speech is not about his life as much as it’s about all the people who helped make his life special.

“Tex Winter for teaching me the importance of terminology,” Tomjanovich says of the triangle offense pioneer.

“Del Harris — who taught me how to think outside the box,” he continues, just getting started on his coaches list.

“Don Chaney on how to teach the rotating defense,” Tomjanovich says.

In his Hall of Fame moment, Rudy Tomjanovich will not tell a lot of stories about himself. He’s too busy telling stories about others.

“I had Charles Barkley for two years in Houston,” Tomjanovich says. “He’s the most unselfish player I ever had.”

The 72-year-old Tomjanovich is the only man in NBA history who scored 10,000 points a player and won two championships and 500 games as a coach. But it’s clear, it is much more about the memories and the people who touched him along the way to this lifelong basketball addict.

“I have traveled the world because of basketball,” Tomjanovich says. “I had the honor of representing our country in 1998 (as coach) in the World Games in Greece and then in 2000 in the Olympics in Australia. I was there when Vince Carter jumped over the Eiffel Tower (7-foot-2 French big man and future Knicks bust Frederic Weis).”

Rudy Tomjanovich’s legacy is all about the heart of a champion — and not underestimating what a champion can do and overcome. But his Basketball Hall of Fame speech is all about the heart of Rudy T. A man who felt plenty.

When he talks about his three grown kids — Nichole, Melissa and Trey — he credits his ex-wife Sophie Tomjanovich for the fact they are “truly wonderful caring people.”

Tomjanovich gives a special thanks to Houston of course, the city that embraced a tough battler from Hamtramck, Michigan as one of its own. “I feel your spirit right here, Houston,” Tomjanovich says, patting his chest, right where his heart is.

Tomjanovich never mentions The Punch — the infamous, horrific shot from Kermit Washington that almost killed him right on a basketball court. Why should he? There are too many wonderful moments, too many people he wants to bring right up onto that grand stage with him.

“I came into basketball with no brothers,” he says. “Today, I have many.”

Rudy Tomjanovich is beaming. He’s right where he belongs. In the Basketball Hall of Fame. Trying to bring others along.