Michael Jordan was a total menace for opponents to face on the court, and if they thought they had it bad, it was arguably even worse for his teammates in practice. Jordan was obsessed with being the best and winning, which meant he expected the same kind of commitment from his teammates that he showed. This led to some legendary altercations throughout his career with the Bulls, including the time that he punched Will Perdue.
Clyde Drexler is someone that had the experience of being MJ’s opponent as well as his teammate. The former NBA champion led the Portland Trail Blazers to the NBA Finals in 1992, where he came up short against Michael Jordan’s Bulls. And then, if that wasn’t enough, he had to hear about it during the summer as well, being selected to the Dream Team, where he ended up being teammates with MJ.
Clyde Drexler Shared How Magic Johnson Would Annoy Michael Jordan And Then He Would Have To Guard An Irritated MJ
The Dream Team is regarded as the best squad ever assembled. The names read like a who’s who of the NBA in the 80s and the 90s. Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, and Charles Barkley all came together to bring pride to the USA during the Olympics. And obviously, there was a lot of banter shared between the best. MJ would often get into it with Magic and Bird, who were great enough to really taunt the younger GOAT. And Clyde Drexler once explained in an interview how that sometimes blew back on him.
(starts at 2:28 minutes):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuVMr311Eqg
“Now you got Magic and Michael hyping, going at each other. They’re chirping. Magic is getting Michael all hyped up and guess who gotta guard Michael (laughs).
“Some of the practices were very competitive and they should’ve been because you got all these great players. But a lot of time we have guys who were injured. I think Magic was injured, Bird was injured, Stockton was injured. So you didn’t have a full complement of players the whole time. I was injured. Knee needed surgery since March that I kept putting off until like September.
“So during that time, I wasn’t looking to go hard in practice, I’m trying to survive the experience. So when I hear guys talking about how hard the practices were, I don’t think I thought that way. Well, you just compete always, no matter if it’s practice the games whenever you come to that floor, you play.”
It’s the most MJ thing ever to treat any practice as seriously as if it were a Finals game, and it’s a large part of what made him the consensus basketball GOAT. Clyde Drexler just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and it’s a testament to MJ’s greatness that he could do this to another NBA legend.
