For a franchise cornerstone like Clyde Drexler, the spotlight tends to shine directly on his shoulders.
Whether he liked it or not, his team’s excellence is almost always carried by him and in turn, Drexler hogged the spotlight simply by being the face of success.
However, according to former NBA role player Jim Jackson, Drexler was a leader miles different from this pattern.
According to Jackson, Drexler stood out to him for not demanding attention but for deliberately deflecting it, something that is always rare for superstar players.
Moreover, even when the media desperately tried to raise the stakes by pitting Drexler against Michael Jordan during the 1992 NBA Finals, he was more interested in getting the spotlight on all his teammates, rather than it being a one-man show.
Drexler’s leadership
The comparisons between Drexler and Jordan had built up throughout the 1991-92 season. Clyde averaged 25 points and 6.7 assists per game and led the Portland Trail Blazers to a 57-25 record, as they were a top-seven offensive and defensive team.
Moreover, Drexler’s leadership helped players like Terry Porter average 18.1 points per game and Buck Williams to register his last All-Defensive Team selection.
However, when Portland reached the Finals against the Chicago Bulls, the entire media headlines were about two of the greatest shooting guards finally settling the debate on who is superior.
But, according to Jackson, Drexler never chased that narrative.
While the world wanted a battle between him and MJ, Drexler was inclined towards getting the attention for his teammates, who had worked hard all year to help the team be in that position. Put simply, Jackson detailed how, in Drexler’s mind, success wasn’t about settling debates over who was the better player between him and Mike; it was about validating the collective strength of a roster that had only gotten better in the playoffs after an enduring 82-game regular season.
“Not at one point during Clyde Drexler’s career, he was ever pointing to, ‘It’s about him.’ Yes, he eventually won a championship, went to Houston and was part of that, but he always carried himself in a professional manner, meaning the team was first,” Jackson said.
“Even in the ’92 Finals, I would happen to be coming out of college and it was the draft combine in Chicago, I was at Game 1 when Michael Jordan had the six three-pointers. Even at the time, when the media was trying to pit Michael against Clyde, Clyde kinda stayed out of the fray because he understood that in order for Portland to win, it wasn’t about him and Michael going up against one another, it was about the Trail Blazers trying to do what they needed to do,” he stated.
Drexler was one of the most underrated leaders of his era
That attitude stood out even more when measured against the landscape of that NBA era. Icons like Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Isiah Thomas were celebrated not just as great players but as the singular leaders who carried their franchises to championships and gave them an identity.
Their names became inseparable from the banners hanging in their arenas.
Drexler, meanwhile, led the Trail Blazers to two NBA Finals appearances in the span of three years. However, he never received the same recognition as a franchise-defining leader who elevated everyone around him. Perhaps his selfless nature, ironically, kept him from being celebrated in the same way his contemporaries were.
That is why Jackson wanted to change that trend by highlighting his team-first mentality.