"Oh, definitely!" - Clyde Drexler says he and Michael Jordan would've made a dynamic duo
Apart from being one of the most explosive scorers of all time, Clyde Drexler was also known in the NBA lore as one of Michael Jordan's fiercest rivals. During their prime, Drexler and Jordan's style of play fairly resembled one another. As shooting guards, both were athletic, skilled, relentless, and competitive.
Looking at how their respective careers panned out, nobody would ever think that "Clyde the Glide" and "His Airness" would make a great duo. However, Drexler himself once admitted that he and MJ would've absolutely dominated an entire era together.
"Oh, definitely! We would have played the same way he and Scottie (Pippen) played together," Clyde told The Columbian in 2011.
Drexler wouldn't have drafted MJ
To hear Clyde say that clearly means that he doesn't have any sour grapes about Jordan. However, Drexler said he wouldn't have picked the University of North Carolina standout if he had been given a chance to go back in 1984 when the Portland Trail Blazers had the opportunity to draft MJ. Instead, Drexler said he would alter the result of the famous coin flip and draft his Phi Slama Jama teammate Hakeem Olajuwon.
For context, the Trail Blazers lost a coin flip that gave the Houston Rockets the rights to the No. 1 overall pick in the draft. Houston picked Hakeem, while Portland opted for Sam Bowie at No. 2 instead of Jordan.
"I'd go back to that 1984 draft and try to influence that coin flip result. Then it would have been a no-brainer," Drexler said.
"At that time, Hakeem was the guy you needed to compete against Kareem. He really would have rounded out our team," he explained.
A Blazer wanted to pair MJ with Clyde
Taking a quick trip down memory lane, one Blazers player already envisioned Jordan teaming up with Drexler and taking over the league in the next several years. Clyde once revealed that his then-teammate Mychal Thompson suggested drafting MJ over Bowie, but to no avail.
"He told the organization that if you pick Jordan, and he and Clyde play together, they're going to dominate this league for the next 10 or 15 years. He said that before the draft. If you're listening, you might want to listen to him because he knew a little bit of something. The Trail Blazers, instead of listening, told him we're going to fine you if you say something that absurd to the media once again," Drexler once recalled.
As most of us can remember, Jordan turned out to be way better than Bowie. And the idea of MJ forming a dynamic duo ultimately became one of the biggest "what ifs" in NBA history.
