Clyde Drexler, who had a brilliant NBA career and was part of the famed 1992 “Dream Team,” apparently was not happy that Magic Johnson was his teammate.
In the upcoming new book, “Dream Team” by long-time Sports Illustrated writer Jack McCallum, Drexler does not hold back in discussing Johnson, his role on the time, his talent and the sympathy he received from most everyone because he tested positive for HIV.
Publisher Random House released an excerpt that surely Johnson will be offended by when he reads it. In it, Drexler says, “Magic was always, ‘Come on, Clyde, come on, Clyde, get with me, get with me,’ and making all that noise. And, really, he couldn’t play much by that time. He couldn’t guard his shadow.”
Drexler added: “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. Magic came across like, ‘All this is my stuff.’ Really? Get outta here, dude. He was on the declining end of his career.”
Drexler was a top MVP candidate in the 1992 All-Star Game in Orlando, but the award eventually went to Johnson, who had been added by commissioner David Stern as a special 13th player to the Western Conference roster. “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.”
