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Clyde Drexler Fires Back At Michael Jordan’s ‘The Last Dance’ Comments About Him
Clyde Drexler was undoubtedly one of the best shooting guards of all-time. He made the All-Star team 10 times and was selected to an All-NBA team five times. Clyde the Glide also led the Portland Trail Blazers to the NBA Finals in 1992. Even though he didn’t win that year, he was fortunate enough to win a chip with the Houston Rockets in 1995.
Drexler was one of the fiercest competitors during his time. But perhaps, he just wasn’t comparable to Michael Jordan, who overshadowed him over the course of his career. It was a matter that Jordan brought up in episode five of ‘The Last Dance’ documentary.
“Clyde was a threat. Me being compared to him, I took offense to that. … Based on the way I was playing at that time, it wasn’t even close. So I attacked him every night,” said Jordan.
Michael Jordan and Clyde Drexler were considered two of the best players in the league during the 1992 NBA Finals. MJ wasn’t having that.
Episodes 5 & 6 of #TheLastDance premiere Sunday at 9 PM ET on ESPN. pic.twitter.com/sUnUiVl67Y
— ESPN (@espn) April 30, 2020
While Jordan admitted being offended by the comparisons and ultimately proved that he was just on a different level, Drexler, on the other hand, seemingly took the high road in response to Jordan’s comments in the documentary and said everybody is entitled to their own opinion.
“That’s Michael’s documentary so obviously it’s going to be from his perspective,” Drexler said on a recent interview with the “The A-Team” on SportsTalk 790. “Everybody is entitled to their own opinion. A lot of times guys didn’t like each other from other teams, but as you get older, you’ve got to get beyond all of that and show some love and some respect for the people you played with and against.”
In the same interview, it seems like Drexler had a change of tone when further making his comments. Addressing the rivalry and Jordan’s personal competitiveness towards him, the retired Portland legend insisted that it was never an individual competition.
“This is a team game, it’s not one guy. You can have 50 points and 40 rebounds but if you lose, are you less of a player than anybody on the other team? No, it’s a team game.
“So I hate when people act like it’s an individual competition. I didn’t take 35 shots and get 20 free throws a night, so I wasn’t going to score 40 points a night.”
The two players enjoyed many heated games against each other from 1980s up to the 1990s. But the most memorable matchup was obviously during the 1992 NBA Finals where Jordan gave us one of the most iconic moments in history which was the savage shrug in game one of the Finals.
Still at the very least, Drexler and the Trail Blazers didn’t go down without putting up a fight. Drexler averaged 24.8 points, 7.8 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game on 40.7% shooting in a losing effort. Meanwhile, Jordan averaged 35.8 points, 4.8 rebounds and 6.5 assists per game on 52.6% from the fied to win his second championship and second finals MVP.
