Was a good role player for the Rockets in the 90s. https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/39460855/two-nba-champion-earl-cureton-dies-66
RIP he was a good role player who could come In for Horry, Thorpe or even Dream. While he wasn’t a star he still contributed important minutes to those championship teams.
RiP but no offense, I don't remember this guy at all and I watched ALL of the Rockets games as a child during the championship era. Can anyone who goes back to that era and before fill me in on who he was and what kind of role he played on the team (and in the NBA in general during his career)? Was he just an IR slot? Again, I don't remember him AT ALL. Hope I don't come off as disrespectful, just puzzled about this guy's origins and contributions.
He hardly played for us, but I was more shocked when I read about this that he was only 66 years old. I think he was pretty old when he got to us. I think I always remember him as a Piston, but he won rings with the Rockets and Sixers.
Dont feel bad. I remember him as a player, but have NO recollection of him with the Rockets. I looked it up. He played 2 games and scored twice over a 3 day period in April. He apparently did a little more in the playoffs, but I don't remember it either. Not exactly a key member of the organization, but he did have a pretty good run as a professional basketball player.
For those who don't remember him as a Rocket, he played in only two regular season games for a total of 30 minutes, scored 4 points. He did have some spot minutes in the playoffs against Phoenix and Utah.
10 playoff games during our first championship. 18 pts and 29 rebounds. Shot 80% from the field. Key contributor.
Earl Cureton and Chris Jent joined aroudn the same time. He took Eric Riley's spot on the playoff roster (eric riley was the 6th man on the fab 5 a few years there) This has been OLD GUYS REMEMBERING THINGS
Undersized try-hard inside player. He was never much of an NBA player, but was well past his prime by the time he was here.
Yup, the Rockets had Tree Rollins as Olajuwon's back up previous years but he left for the Magic. Earl Cureton was brought on board as a veteran presence for the playoff run at the end of the '94 regular season instead of relying on the rookie Eric Riley. Chris Jent took on Bullard's sharpshooting roll. The Rockets had done the same thing in '93 as well, bringing in the veteran Terry Teagle to take Kennard Winchester's spot for the playoffs and Winchester was not happy about that. In '95 Charles Jones took over the roll that Earl Cureton had played in '94. I remember seeing an interview in the locker room after one of the games in '95 where Earl Cureton surprised the team with a visit to wish them well and Sam Cassell was joking with him that if he's here to secure a short contract to get another ring, it's too late because they already got Charles Jones!
RIP “Twirl”. You just dug up some old memories brother. I remember when we traded for Riley and my uncle was adamant that we should have just kept Popeye. RIP unc.
