Dream Team: Clyde Drexler thought Magic was going to die

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By Frank Becerra, USA TODAY

The 20th anniversary of the Dream Team has many of us believing that the Olympics was all about great basketball players jelling and then singing Kumbaya.

But the 12 players were hyper-competitive and held grudges.

Clyde Drexler tells writer Jack McCallum in the new book "Dream Team" that he begrudged Magic Johnson getting a spot and Michael Jordan keeping Isiah Thomas off.

CHARLES BARKLEY: Hall of Famer talks to author about his legacy

He also thought that everyone thought Magic would die.

Drexler, one of the few players to support Johnson after an incident in which was bleeding on the court after his AIDs diagnosis, "I have no problem playing against him" wasn't as charitable in the summer of 1992.

"He couldn't play much by that time. He couldn't guard his shadow...but you have to have to understand what was going on then. Everybody kept waiting for Magic to die. Every time he'd run up the court everybody would feel sorry for the guy, and he'd get all that benefit of the doubt."

Johnson (25 points, 9 assists) was the 1992 All-Star Game MVP in a game in which Drexler had 22 points, 9 ...ix assists.

Said Drexler: "If we all knew Magic was going to live this long, I would've gotten the MVP of that game, and Magic probably wouldn't have made the Olympic team."

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gameon/post/2012/06/dream-team-clyde-drexler-thought-magic-was-going-to-die/1#.T-nrMJHYSSM

Said Drexler: "If we all knew Magic was going to live this long, I would've gotten the MVP of that game..."

this just seems totally unnecessary, bitter, and selfish to say

NDRU said:

Said Drexler: "If we all knew Magic was going to live this long, I would've gotten the MVP of that game..."

this just seems totally unnecessary, bitter, and selfish to say

....I like honesty.

Graycap23 said:

NDRU said:

Said Drexler: "If we all knew Magic was going to live this long, I would've gotten the MVP of that game..."

this just seems totally unnecessary, bitter, and selfish to say

....I like honesty.

It's honest about his own bitterness about not winning it!

Not necessarily honest about who "would've gotten" it, because nobody could know that (especially if Magic scored 25 points in that game)

NDRU said:

Graycap23 said:

....I like honesty.

It's honest about his own bitterness about not winning it!

Not necessarily honest about who "would've gotten" it, because nobody could know that (especially if Magic scored 25 points in that game)

But honest none the less.

Slow day for the USA Today columnist

Graycap23 said:

NDRU said:

Said Drexler: "If we all knew Magic was going to live this long, I would've gotten the MVP of that game..."

this just seems totally unnecessary, bitter, and selfish to say

....I like honesty.

Speaking of "honesty", in the book that Magic Johnson & Larry Bird co-wrote a few years earlier, Magic admitted that it was his idea (NOT Michael Jordan's) for Isaiah Thomas to be exclude from the Dream Team.

phunkdaddy said:

Slow day for the USA Today columnist

Graycap23 said:

NDRU said:

Said Drexler: "If we all knew Magic was going to live this long, I would've gotten the MVP of that game..."

this just seems totally unnecessary, bitter, and selfish to say

....I like honesty.

What was honest about it other than it is his opinion?

How does he know he would've been MVP?

He sounds old and bitter.

SUPRMAN said:

Graycap23 said:

....I like honesty.

What was honest about it other than it is his opinion?

How does he know he would've been MVP?

He sounds old and bitter.

Honest about his feelings.

IMO, there's some out of context goin' on here. Clyde isn't a bad guy, and the writer of that article clearly included that line with so little around it for the purpose of causing a controversy. This was obviously part of a larger conversation and I'm willing to bet that if you could actually hear the words coming out of his mouth they wouldn't sound bitter at all. Remember, he's answering questions, not volunteering information. That part is never included in articles like this.

Cerebus said:

IMO, there's some out of context goin' on here. Clyde isn't a bad guy, and the writer of that article clearly included that line with so little around it for the purpose of causing a controversy. This was obviously part of a larger conversation and I'm willing to bet that if you could actually hear the words coming out of his mouth they wouldn't sound bitter at all. Remember, he's answering questions, not volunteering information. That part is never included in articles like this.

Exactly.

Cerebus said:

IMO, there's some out of context goin' on here. Clyde isn't a bad guy, and the writer of that article clearly included that line with so little around it for the purpose of causing a controversy. This was obviously part of a larger conversation and I'm willing to bet that if you could actually hear the words coming out of his mouth they wouldn't sound bitter at all. Remember, he's answering questions, not volunteering information. That part is never included in articles like this.

Agreed.

http://www.jackmccallum.n...-qcXlc2_5l

NDRU said:

Said Drexler: "If we all knew Magic was going to live this long, I would've gotten the MVP of that game..."

this just seems totally unnecessary, bitter, and selfish to say

No it doesn't.

WaterInYourBath said:

NDRU said:

Said Drexler: "If we all knew Magic was going to live this long, I would've gotten the MVP of that game..."

this just seems totally unnecessary, bitter, and selfish to say

No it doesn't.

Oh

Props to the Glide for not sugarcoating his opinion. I'm still mad about Christian Laettner being on the Dream Team tbh.

AsherFierce said:

Props to the Glide for not sugarcoating his opinion. I'm still mad about Christian Laettner being on the Dream Team tbh.

Now if you ask me, THAT was the biggest travesty! I can't say Isiah didn't belong on that team, but being a Jordan fan, I didn't lose sleep over it . Shaq should've been the rookie on that squad.

[Edited 6/27/12 13:54pm]

How was Laettner allowed to be on there but not Shaq?!

Timmy84 said:

How was Laettner allowed to be on there but not Shaq?!

They needed another caucasian on the squad.

Graycap23 said:

Timmy84 said:

How was Laettner allowed to be on there but not Shaq?!

They needed another caucasian on the squad.

That ain't even a good excuse. There was some fine players of the Caucasian persuasion IN the NBA. Why not pick from there?!

Graycap23 said:

Timmy84 said:

How was Laettner allowed to be on there but not Shaq?!

They needed another caucasian on the squad.

They wanted to keep one college player on the squad. Gotta remember this was the first Olympics where they allowed pro/NBA players to participate. I'm still not sure Laettner was the best choice as far as college players go, either. But that's why he was on the team.

Cerebus said:

Graycap23 said:

They needed another caucasian on the squad.

They wanted to keep one college player on the squad. Gotta remember this was the first Olympics where they allowed pro/NBA players to participate. I'm still not sure Laettner was the best choice as far as college players go, either. But that's why he was on the team.

I keep forgetting the Dream Team was the first time pro ball players played. But yeah I'd picked a way better dude than Laettner. Like I said, they couldn't get Shaq in '92?

Timmy84 said:

Cerebus said:

They wanted to keep one college player on the squad. Gotta remember this was the first Olympics where they allowed pro/NBA players to participate. I'm still not sure Laettner was the best choice as far as college players go, either. But that's why he was on the team.

I keep forgetting the Dream Team was the first time pro ball players played. But yeah I'd picked a way better dude than Laettner. Like I said, they couldn't get Shaq in '92?

That's why they were so Dreamy.

O'Neal was the number one draft pick in 1992 and I don't remember if the draft was before or after the Olympics that year. It's before this year. So if it was before then, Shaq would have been in flux - not playing college ball at the time, not yet a pro. I have a vague memory of the Magic not wanting their new investment to play. I could be wrong, but I think that was part of it. He would definitely have been a better choice than Laettner, though. Please!

Cerebus said:

Timmy84 said:

I keep forgetting the Dream Team was the first time pro ball players played. But yeah I'd picked a way better dude than Laettner. Like I said, they couldn't get Shaq in '92?

That's why they were so Dreamy.

O'Neal was the number one draft pick in 1992 and I don't remember if the draft was before or after the Olympics that year. It's before this year. So if it was before then, Shaq would have been in flux - not playing college ball at the time, not yet a pro. I have a vague memory of the Magic not wanting their new investment to play. I could be wrong, but I think that was part of it. He would definitely have been a better choice than Laettner, though. Please!

Ah I see so they couldn't get him even if they wanted to. But yeah why Laettner. I had venom for Duke then. I was a hardcore Tarheel fan then. Still a fan lol

Timmy84 said:

Cerebus said:

That's why they were so Dreamy.

O'Neal was the number one draft pick in 1992 and I don't remember if the draft was before or after the Olympics that year. It's before this year. So if it was before then, Shaq would have been in flux - not playing college ball at the time, not yet a pro. I have a vague memory of the Magic not wanting their new investment to play. I could be wrong, but I think that was part of it. He would definitely have been a better choice than Laettner, though. Please!

Ah I see so they couldn't get him even if they wanted to. But yeah why Laettner. I had venom for Duke then. I was a hardcore Tarheel fan then. Still a fan lol

I'm not sure if they couldn't get him, but that's what my foggy 1992 memories are telling me was the case. He wasn't a big NBA star yet so he didn't have any say in the matter.

I don't follow college basketball and I never have. College sports, even - not-a-one. I don't have time for all that. I just start paying attention to all the talk about the who is going to go into the draft as soon as it starts (which is months prior, these days) and that's all I need to know.

Cerebus said:

Timmy84 said:

Ah I see so they couldn't get him even if they wanted to. But yeah why Laettner. I had venom for Duke then. I was a hardcore Tarheel fan then. Still a fan lol

I'm not sure if they couldn't get him, but that's what my foggy 1992 memories are telling me was the case. He wasn't a big NBA star yet so he didn't have any say in the matter.

I don't follow college basketball and I never have. College sports, even - not-a-one. I don't have time for all that. I just start paying attention to all the talk about the who is going to go into the draft as soon as it starts (which is months prior, these days) and that's all I need to know.

http://espn.go.com/nba/st...dream-team

LittleBLUECorvette said:

http://espn.go.com/nba/st...dream-team

Something tells me this story is just getting started. I look forward to Magic's first statement about it in the next couple days.

Timmy84 said:

Cerebus said:

That's why they were so Dreamy.

O'Neal was the number one draft pick in 1992 and I don't remember if the draft was before or after the Olympics that year. It's before this year. So if it was before then, Shaq would have been in flux - not playing college ball at the time, not yet a pro. I have a vague memory of the Magic not wanting their new investment to play. I could be wrong, but I think that was part of it. He would definitely have been a better choice than Laettner, though. Please!

Ah I see so they couldn't get him even if they wanted to. But yeah why Laettner. I had venom for Duke then. I was a hardcore Tarheel fan then. Still a fan lol

He was one of the top college players at that time. Hard to remember that now...but in all honesty he was probaby better than Bird at that point!

I guess he's a great example of a great college player who does not translate that well to the NBA. The Ralph Sampson Syndrome. Still CL played like a dozen seasons, he was not THAT bad!