Michael Jordan is widely regarded as the greatest basketball player of all time. During his playing days, Jordan impressed everyone with his unmatched skills and equally amazing resume. While even in his era, there were many amazing stars, MJ was in a league of his own.
So it is quite obvious that there were only a handful of players that were even compared to him. But even among them, NBA Hall of Famer Clyde Drexler was hardly a part of the debate. No disrespect to him, he had a sensational career and is a legend of the Portland Trail Blazers. He was even part of the 1995 Houston Rockets championship team and deserves a lot of praise for his efforts in the league.
Even then, it is hard to see him being compared to Jordan. That might be the consensus, but Drexler believes that is not true at all. In an interview, he revealed why Jordan was considered better than him and what he could have done differently to be in the same conversation as the Chicago Bulls legend.
“I always felt like there was nobody better if I played the way I should’ve played. If I come out and compete, there’s gonna be very few guys better. And if they are, you shake their hand and say congrats.”
He further added, “If you are taking 35 shots, and I’m taking 20, you are gonna have more points.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwau5WTmG14
The two superstars met each other from time to time in the regular season, where Jordan has an upper hand with winning 10 out of 17 fixtures. As for their stats, MJ has a huge lead over Clyde as the former averaged 34.5 PPG while the latter averaged 23.5 PPG.
When it comes to the playoffs, the only time the two stars locked horns was in the 1992 NBA Finals. During that time, Mike was on his rise and it was almost impossible to stop him in his tracks. Like most expected, Jordan’s Bulls went on to defeat Drexler and the Blazers in six games.
During the series, Michael averaged a stunning 35.8 points, coupled with 6.8 assists and 1.7 steals per game. On the other hand, Drexler had a good series as well, but it was not even close to MJ with his 24.8 points, 5.3 assists, and 1.3 steals per game.
Even if we take a look at the shots that the two players attempted in their battles, MJ took 25.7 shots per game as compared to Drexler’s 19.7 FGA per game. It further debunks his theory that Jordan used to take a lot more shots than him. The key to his success of efficiency.
Mike maintained a 52.6% shooting percentage while Drexler barely touched the 40% mark. Despite taking just 6 more shots than Clyde, Jordan not only scored more but maintained his shooting accuracy as well.
While MJ was head and shoulders above Clyde, even he couldn’t defeat Larry Bird in the playoffs.
So it might be true that MJ was taking more shots or scoring more, but it doesn’t take anything away from him. Similarly, maybe Clyde could have had better stats than MJ if he played as he mentioned in the interview, but that isn’t how we remember history.
