Basketball has taken Carroll Dawson from the fields of Alba, Texas to the top of one of the NBA's premier franchises. Dawson has been the General Manager of the Houston Rockets since 1996. "CD" was an assistant under four different Rocket coaches from 1980-1996 and is the only person in the franchise to coach on all four of the Rockets' trips to the NBA Finals -1981, 1986, 1994 and 1995. Dawson specialized in coaching the team's frontcourt players and is credited with teaching Hakeem Olajuwon the jump hook. He is also responsible for helping put together the WNBA's most successful team-the Houston Comets. He hired coach Van Chancellor and signed key players Sheryl Swoopes, Cynthia Cooper and Tina Thompson. The Comets won four consecutive WNBA titles from 1997-2000. Dawson was an All-American at Paris Jr. College and made the All-SWC team at Baylor in 1960. He was the head basketball coach at Baylor University from 1973-1977. As general manager of the Rockets Dawson was also responsible for bringing some of the NBA's best players to Houston like Scottie Pippen, Charles Barkley, Steve Francis, Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming. He was inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in 2003.