Drexler, Clyde 1962–
Clyde Drexler 1962–
Professional basketball player
Cultivated Athletic Discipline
Skills Improved, but Controversy Mounted
Portland Trail Blazer guard Clyde “The Glide” Drexler is considered a phenomenon in professional basketball: a championship-calibre player, he toils in a small market and never seeks to call attention to himself. Compared at every turn to the better-known Michael Jordan, Drexler has progressed year by year as his team has become a playoff contender. His skills during the 1991-92 basketball season earned him All-NBA First Team honors and a position on the United States Olympic basketball team. Philadelphia Inquirer correspondent Mike Bruton commended Drexler for his “silky-smooth style that ranges from explosiveness when he assaults the hoop on the fast break to the utmost in finesse when he softly launches a three-pointer or beats his man on a baseline drive.” Bruton added: “The Glide is not just a nickname, it is what Clyde Drexler does on a basketball court.”
Drexler is stalking greatness, but his fame outside Portland and his native Houston is limited. “I am just uncomfortable talking about myself or my family,” Drexler told the Sporting News. Nor does he appear to be consumed with the desire to win national championships, even though the Trail Blazers advanced to the finals in 1990 and again in 1992. “I want to win it all, but I’m not obsessed with it,” he said placidly just before the 1992 NBA Championships. “It won’t mar my accomplishments.”
These accomplishments have accumulated slowly in a professional career that began in 1983. Plagued in his early years by a reputation for wild play on the court and stubbornness with coaches and staff, Drexler went on to mature emotionally and physically. He attributes his success in the NBA not to raw talent but to hard work. “It’s a slap in my face to credit everything I’ve done to my God-given abilities,” Drexler told the Sporting News. “I never felt I was a very good player. At Houston [in college], when everyone else was partying, I was in the gym... at 2 a.m., practicing. I’ve always had keys to the gym. My edge isn’t my talent; it’s the fact I’m always in shape.”
Drexler was born in 1962 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He spent most of his childhood in Houston, Texas, in a neighborhood known as South Park. Sporting News contributor Paul Attner noted that Drexler has described himself as a “chubby preteen who was too slow, couldn’t jump and was always picked last on his playground in Houston.” That assessment might not be completely fair.
At a Glance…
Born June 22, 1962, in New Orleans, LA; son of Eunice Drexler Scott; married Gaynell Floyd (an attorney), 1988; children: Austin, Elise. Education: Attended University of Houston, 1980-83.
Guard for Portland Trail Blazers professional basketball team, Portland, OR, 1983—. Selected fourteenth in first round of 1983 National Basketball Association (NBA) draft. Contract with Portland extended through 1995-96 season. Member of 1992 United States Olympic basketball team.
Awards: Named to NBA All-Star team, 1986-92; named to All-NBA Second Team, 1991; named to All-NBA First Team, 1992.
Addresses: Office—c/o Portland Trail Blazers, 700 NE Multnomah, Suite 600, Portland, OR 97232.
The middle of seven children, Clyde spent hours on the front porch of his home, drilling the ball off the roof to his older brother, James. Clyde told Sports Illustrated that his six-foot-plus brother, whose athletic career was cut short by work responsibilities, was talented and a good teacher. “The funny thing is that James had one of these picture-perfect jump shots, high arc, perfect form, the whole thing,” Drexler said. “Exactly what my jumper doesn’t look like.” Drexler’s mother told the Oregonian of her younger son: “Clyde didn’t care about shooting. All he wanted to do is dunk.”
Cultivated Athletic Discipline
At the age of twelve, Drexler enrolled in a martial arts class at the urging of a neighbor. The class helped him to develop discipline, and by the time he entered high school he was a “gym rat,” playing whatever sport was in season and doing well in all of them. Basketball seemed to be his best game, so his coaches encouraged him to give up football and baseball. “All you heard back then was to concentrate on one sport, and I think I got caught up in that,” Drexler told Sports Illustrated. “My one regret is that I didn’t get a chance to play two sports at a pro level. Baseball, maybe, or even football, as a quarterback or wide receiver.”
Drexler’s family was upwardly mobile. Both his mother and his stepfather, Manuel Scott, worked full-time jobs. Most of his siblings went to college. He was not pushed into a sports career by financial need or by the desire to help his parents out of difficulties—although he has provided funds to help his mother retire early from her position as a cashier at a supermarket. As Jack McCallum observed in Sports Illustrated, “When Clyde went to the University of Houston... he wasn’t escaping from anything, didn’t feel angry or trapped, and never thought he had to become a professional athlete to be a success.” Nevertheless, Drexler entered the University of Houston in 1980 and helped make its basketball team an NCAA powerhouse in just two short years.
At Houston Drexler combined with Akeem Olajuwon and Larry Micheaux to form the “Phi Slamma Jamma” front line. The trio was nearly unstoppable through several college seasons, and the University of Houston made the NCAA Final Four twice—in 1982 and 1983—while Drexler was there. Even though he only played through his junior year, Drexler set records at Houston for scoring 1000 points, snagging 900 rebounds, and making 300 assists over the course of his collegiate career. He was voted Houston’s most valuable player as a sophomore and averaged 15.9 points per game as a junior. Also as a junior he was named Southwest Conference player of the year. These were the crucial seasons in which Drexler honed his 43-inch vertical reach with late-night workouts in the Houston athletic center. Expectations of a professional career suddenly became a real possibility, and he worked hard to make it happen.
After his junior year of college Drexler announced his availability for the NBA draft. It was a calculated move. The Houston Rockets had the first and third picks in the draft that year, and Drexler hoped to be chosen by his hometown team, a franchise that he had followed avidly. Instead, the Rockets took Ralph Sampson and Rodney McCray. Drexler was drafted fourteenth in the first round, by a team more than a thousand miles away—the Portland Trail Blazers. “I was upset,” Drexler told the Oregonian. “I came out [of college] a year early with the idea that the Rockets would grab me. When they didn’t, I was disappointed.”
Portland might have seemed like a foreign country to Drexler when he arrived late in 1983, but he was determined to make his mark on basketball there. Attner wrote that in his early years as a professional, Drexler was “an immature, undisciplined natural talent with just five years of playing experience and an unrealistic opinion of his game. Amid the spectacular plays were too many wild shots and too much selfishness.” Among Drexler’s noted weaknesses were lapses in ball handling and decision making. His scoring average as a rookie was only 7.7 points per game, although he played in all 82 of the Blazers’ games.
Skills Improved, but Controversy Mounted
Drexler established himself in Portland as a man of few words who guarded his privacy intensely. Still, he was not able to insulate himself entirely from the probing eyes of media and fans. As his ability increased—he made his first All-Star appearance in 1986—he began to clash with some of his coaches. Mild disagreements with his first Portland coach, Jack Ramsay, gave way to deeper arguments with Ramsay’s replacement, Mike Schuler. All the while Drexler was improving on the court. His 1988-89 scoring average of 27.2 points was a Portland record, and he was voted Portland’s most valuable player by his teammates. McCallum observed, however, that Schuler “considered Drexler a negative influence on the team, a player who didn’t give his all in practice and who, despite streaks of brilliance, made bad decisions on the court.” The schism ended when Schuler was fired—the Trail Blazer front office decided to take the side of their budding superstar.
Traces of the controversy linger to this day. “I would never say Clyde didn’t practice hard,” assistant coach John Wetzel told Sports Illustrated of the Schuler years. “But I would say he is a little more focused now, more knowledgeable about the right things to do. He doesn’t feel he has to prove himself every day, and that’s led to a more constructive approach to his game.” Under current Portland coach Rick Adelman, Drexler’s ability has steadily improved. His shot selection, passing, court vision, and defense put him on a par with Michael Jordan, and he has—after some reluctance—become the Trail Blazers’ team captain.
As Drexler improved, so did the Blazers. The team appeared in its first NBA championship series in 1990, losing to the Detroit Pistons in five games. In 1992 the Blazers advanced all the way to the championships again, losing in a heartbreaking six games to the Chicago Bulls. For Drexler, that defeat was particularly disheartening. He had come off his best season yet, leading his team in both scoring average and assists and guiding the Blazers to an 11-4 post-season record before meeting the Bulls. National media attention poured down upon him when he finished second in voting for the league’s most valuable player behind Michael Jordan.
The bittersweet ending to the 1992 professional season had a footnote, however. Drexler was not among the players initially named to the United States Olympic basketball team. He was stung by the omission, but he told the Los Angeles Times that he didn’t dwell on it. Fortunately for Drexler—and the United States—the selection committee had left one spot open to be filled by a player who excelled during the 1991-92 regular season. In the spring of 1992 Drexler was given the call to join the Olympic team in Barcelona for the summer games. The low-key guard gave the credit for his selection to the Portland fans. “I think the fans on the local level started the whole support system, and that was a great feeling,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “They were behind me all the way and they wanted to see justice done. The committee finally made a good decision.”
Couldn’t Avoid Limelight
The flip side to the coin is that Drexler will no longer toil in relative anonymity in Portland. His spot on the Olympic team will assure him the national status that his quiet behavior and small-market team membership have allowed him to avoid. “I’ve always had recognition, coming out of college,” Drexler said. “The mega-mega-superstar recognition I haven’t had, and that hasn’t bothered me at all. I’ve got a lot of respect from people all across the country, get plenty of fan mail and that’s a lot. I’d hate to go to the next level, where you’re what I call a commercial superstar.” Drexler backs these words up with actions: to date he has few of the high-paying commercial endorsements so prized by other NBA superstars, although his Trail Blazer salary is competitive.
Attner called Drexler “the NBA superstar we know the least about.” Although active in the Portland community and a connoisseur of African-American art, Drexler prefers to protect his privacy and to shun controversy. He only explains himself when asked about his nickname, “The Glide,” and his seemingly effortless work on the basketball court. “From my perspective, I’m scuffling out there,” Drexler told The Oregonian. “I’m struggling. I’m barely making it. So when somebody says I make it look easy, that’s funny.” He elaborated in the Los Angeles Times, noting that on the court, “I’m going, ‘If I make this move, my ankle’s going to kill me, if I make this move my knees may bend wrong.’ I’m out there struggling. But I’m trying so hard, before you know it, the play’s made. It’s like something you’ve done a million times before, so you just let it happen.... You never have time to think, ‘I’m just going to glide.’”
During the off-season Drexler lives quietly in Portland with his wife, who is an attorney, and their two children. He studies foreign languages, dabbles with computers, and is an avid reader. “Each year, I try to expand my learning experience by taking on a new challenge,” he told the Sporting News. “I don’t want to become stagnant as a person.” Drexler’s contract with the Trail Blazers could keep him in Portland until the end of the 1995-96 basketball season. Attner concluded that Drexler will continue to shun the public cauldron of attention, unwilling to participate in the fuss being made over him. “In Drexler’s abstract world,” the reporter wrote, “winning and losing are not the measure of success. Living that balanced life, so basketball doesn’t dominate—now, that is success.”
Sources
Los Angeles Times, June 2, 1992.
Oregonian, May 27, 1992.
Philadelphia Inquirer, June 2, 1992.
Sporting News, May 18, 1992.
Sports Illustrated, June 11, 1990; January 27, 1992; May 11, 1992.
—Mark Kram
Drexler, Clyde
Drexler, Clyde
1962—
Professional basketball player
During his nearly 12 seasons with the Portland Trail Blazers, Clyde "The Glide" Drexler became Portland's all-time leader in points scored, rebounding, steals, and games played. His fame grew beyond the Pacific Northwest as he led Portland to National Basketball Association (NBA) Finals in 1990 and 1992, and during his stint on the first, and some say only, "Dream Team," that won gold for the United States at the 1992 Olympics. Drexler made a name for himself as one of the sport's greatest players in Portland, but a championship eluded him until his first year with the Houston Rockets, 1995. He retired in 1998. Named one of the 50 greatest basketball players in NBA history, his status among professional basketball's elite was sealed in 2004 when Drexler was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.
Earned Reputation as Basketball Phenomenon
Drexler was considered a phenomenon in professional basketball: a championship-caliber player, he toiled in a small market and never sought to call attention to himself. Compared at every turn to the better-known Michael Jordan, Drexler progressed year by year. Philadelphia Inquirer correspondent Mike Bruton commended Drexler for his "silky-smooth style that ranges from explosiveness when he assaults the hoop on the fast break to the utmost in finesse when he softly launches a three-pointer or beats his man on a baseline drive." Bruton added: "The Glide is not just a nickname, it is what Clyde Drexler does on a basketball court."
"He was definitely one of the best players to play this game," Portland guard Damon Stoudamire remembered to Nick Daschel of the Vancouver, Washington, Columbian on the occasion of Drexler's Hall of Fame induction. "But what I think about Clyde is that he's even a better person." What contributed to Drexler's appeal as a person was that, as Drexler stalked greatness, he kept his life in balance. "I want to win it all, but I'm not obsessed with it," he said placidly just before the 1992 NBA Championships. "It won't mar my accomplishments." He kept this same attitude throughout his career.
Drexler took great pride in the accomplishments he accumulated over his 15-year career as a professional basketball player. Plagued in his early years by a reputation for wild play on the court and stubbornness with coaches and staff, Drexler went on to mature emotionally and physically. He attributed his success in the NBA not to raw talent but to hard work. "It's a slap in my face to credit everything I've done to my God-given abilities," Drexler told the Sporting News. "I never felt I was a very good player. At Houston [in college], when everyone else was partying, I was in the gym…at 2 a.m., practicing. I've always had keys to the gym. My edge isn't my talent; it's the fact I'm always in shape."
Picked Up Basketball as a Kid
Drexler was born in 1962 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He spent most of his childhood in Houston, Texas, in a neighborhood known as South Park. Sporting News contributor Paul Attner noted that Drexler has described himself as a "chubby preteen who was too slow, couldn't jump and was always picked last on his playground in Houston." That assessment might not be completely fair. The middle of seven children, Clyde spent hours on the front porch of his home, drilling the ball off the roof to his older brother, James. Clyde told Sports Illustrated that his six-foot-plus brother, whose athletic career was cut short by work responsibilities, was talented and a good teacher. "The funny thing is that James had one of these picture-perfect jump shots, high arc, perfect form, the whole thing," Drexler said. "Exactly what my jumper doesn't look like." Drexler's mother told the Oregonian of her younger son: "Clyde didn't care about shooting. All he wanted to do is dunk."
At age 12, Drexler enrolled in a martial arts class at the urging of a neighbor. The class helped him to develop discipline, and by the time he entered high school he was a "gym rat," playing whatever sport was in season and doing well in all of them. Basketball seemed to be his best game, so his coaches encouraged him to give up football and baseball. "All you heard back then was to concentrate on one sport, and I think I got caught up in that," Drexler told Sports Illustrated. "My one regret is that I didn't get a chance to play two sports at a pro level. Baseball, maybe, or even football, as a quarterback or wide receiver."
Drexler's family was upwardly mobile. Both his mother and his stepfather, Manuel Scott, worked full-time jobs. Most of his siblings went to college. He was not pushed into a sports career by financial need or by the desire to help his parents out of difficulties. As Jack McCallum observed in Sports Illustrated, "When Clyde went to the University of Houston…he wasn't escaping from anything, didn't feel angry or trapped, and never thought he had to become a professional athlete to be a success." Nevertheless, Drexler entered the University of Houston in 1980 and helped make its basketball team an NCAA powerhouse within two short years.
At Houston Drexler combined with Akeem [Hakeem as of 1991] Olajuwon and Larry Micheaux to form the "Phi Slamma Jamma" front line. The trio was nearly unstoppable through several college seasons, and the University of Houston made the NCAA Final Four twice—in 1982 and 1983—while Drexler was there. Even though he only played through his junior year, Drexler set records at Houston for scoring 1000 points, snagging 900 rebounds, and making 300 assists over the course of his collegiate career. He was voted Houston's most valuable player as a sophomore and averaged 15.9 points per game as a junior. Also as a junior he was named Southwest Conference player of the year. These were the crucial seasons in which Drexler honed his 43-inch vertical reach with late-night workouts in the Houston athletic center. Expectations of a professional career suddenly became a real possibility, and he worked hard to make it happen.
Drafted by the Portland Trail Blazers
After his junior year of college Drexler announced his availability for the NBA draft. It was a calculated move. The Houston Rockets had the first and third picks in the draft that year, and Drexler hoped to be chosen by his hometown team, a franchise that he had followed avidly. Instead, the Rockets took Ralph Sampson and Rodney McCray. Drexler was drafted 14th in the first round, by a team more than a thousand miles away—the Portland Trail Blazers. "I was upset," Drexler told the Oregonian. "I came out [of college] a year early with the idea that the Rockets would grab me. When they didn't, I was disappointed."
At a Glance …
Born June 22, 1962, in New Orleans, LA; son of Eunice Drexler Scott; married Gaynell Floyd (an attorney), 1988; children: Erica (from previous relationship), Austin, Elise, Adam. Education: Attended University of Houston, 1980-83.
Career:
Portland Trail Blazers professional basketball team, Portland, OR, guard, 1983-95; Houston Rockets professional basketball team, Houston, TX, guard, 1995-98; University of Houston, coach, 1998-2000; Denver Nuggets, assistant coach and special assistant to general manager, 2001-02.
Memberships:
United States Olympic basketball team, 1992.
Awards:
NBA All-Star team, member, 1986, 1988-94, 1996, 1997; Olympic Gold Medal, 1992; named one of 50 Greatest NBA Players of All Time, 1996; Houston Rockets retired Drexler's jersey number, 2000; Portland Trail Blazers, retired Drexler's jersey number (#22), 2001; Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, inductee, 2004.
Portland might have seemed like a foreign country to Drexler when he arrived late in 1983, but he was determined to make his mark on basketball there. Attner wrote that in his early years as a professional, Drexler was "an immature, undisciplined natural talent with just five years of playing experience and an unrealistic opinion of his game. Amid the spectacular plays were too many wild shots and too much selfishness." Among Drexler's noted weaknesses were lapses in ball handling and decision making. His scoring average as a rookie was only 7.7 points per game, although he played in all 82 of the Blazers' games.
Drexler established himself in Portland as a man of few words who guarded his privacy intensely. Still, he was not able to insulate himself entirely from the probing eyes of media and fans. As his ability increased—he made his first of ten All-Star appearances in 1986—he began to clash with some of his coaches. Mild disagreements with his first Portland coach, Jack Ramsay, gave way to deeper arguments with Ramsay's replacement, Mike Schuler. All the while Drexler was improving on the court. His 1988-89 scoring average of 27.2 points was a Portland record, and he was voted Portland's most valuable player by his teammates. McCallum observed, however, that Schuler "considered Drexler a negative influence on the team, a player who didn't give his all in practice and who, despite streaks of brilliance, made bad decisions on the court." The schism ended when Schuler was fired—the Trail Blazer front office decided to take the side of their budding superstar.
Traces of the controversy lingered for several years, however. "I would never say Clyde didn't practice hard," assistant coach John Wetzel told Sports Illustrated of the Schuler years. "But I would say he is a little more focused now, more knowledgeable about the right things to do. He doesn't feel he has to prove himself every day, and that's led to a more constructive approach to his game." Under Portland coach Rick Adelman, Drexler's ability steadily improved. His shot selection, passing, court vision, and defense put him on a par with Michael Jordan, and he—after some reluctance—become the Trail Blazers' team captain.
As Drexler improved, so did the Blazers. The team appeared in its first NBA championship series in 1990, losing to the Detroit Pistons in five games. In 1992 the Blazers advanced all the way to the championships again, losing in a heartbreaking six games to the Chicago Bulls. For Drexler, that defeat was particularly disheartening. He had come off his best season yet, leading his team in both scoring average and assists and guiding the Blazers to an 11-4 post-season record before meeting the Bulls. National media attention poured down upon him when he finished second in voting for the league's most valuable player behind Michael Jordan.
Won Spot on Dream Team
The bittersweet ending to the 1992 professional season had a footnote, however. Drexler was not among the players initially named to the United States Olympic basketball team. He was stung by the omission, but he told the Los Angeles Times that he didn't dwell on it. Fortunately for Drexler—and the United States—the selection committee had left one spot open to be filled by a player who excelled during the 1991-92 regular season. In the spring of 1992 Drexler was given the call to join the Olympic team in Barcelona for the summer games. The low-key guard gave the credit for his selection to the Portland fans. "I think the fans on the local level started the whole support system, and that was a great feeling," he told the Los Angeles Times. "They were behind me all the way and they wanted to see justice done. The committee finally made a good decision."
Joining the Dream Team erased Drexler's relative anonymity in Portland. His spot on the Olympic team assured him the national status that his quiet behavior and small-market team membership had allowed him to avoid. "I've always had recognition, coming out of college," Drexler said. "The mega-mega-superstar recognition I haven't had, and that hasn't bothered me at all. I've got a lot of respect from people all across the country, get plenty of fan mail and that's a lot. I'd hate to go to the next level, where you're what I call a commercial superstar." Drexler's talent, however, would push him toward that level.
In 1992 Attner called Drexler "the NBA superstar we know the least about." Although active in the Portland community and a connoisseur of African-American art, Drexler preferred to protect his privacy and to shun controversy. The greatest explanation he'd offer about himself was to elaborate on his nickname, "The Glide," and his seemingly effortless work on the basketball court. "From my perspective, I'm scuffling out there," Drexler told The Oregonian. "I'm struggling. I'm barely making it. So when somebody says I make it look easy, that's funny." He elaborated in the Los Angeles Times, noting that on the court, "I'm going, ‘If I make this move, my ankle's going to kill me, if I make this move my knees may bend wrong.’ I'm out there struggling. But I'm trying so hard, before you know it, the play's made. It's like something you've done a million times before, so you just let it happen…. You never have time to think, ‘I'm just going to glide.’"
Drexler's vigorous attention to his health kept him on top of his game season after season with the Blazers. Yet Drexler voiced concern that the team management did not show him the respect his play deserved. By 1995, after 11 and a half seasons with the Blazers, Drexler demanded to be traded. Drexler explained to Barry M. Bloom of Sport his reasoning: "I'd played myself out of there, to be very honest. I'd seen transition in that organization quite a few times while I was there. It wasn't only the money. It wasn't only the rebuilding phase. It just wasn't going to work." His request led to the fulfillment of his original wish to play for the Houston Rockets.
Returned to Houston
On Valentine's Day of 1995 the Trail Blazers traded him to the Houston Rockets. Drexler rejoined his former college teammate Hakeem Olajuwon on his hometown team, which had won the NBA champion- ship the previous season. Drexler hoped to help the Rockets repeat their victory. "Getting the ring is the driving force in my career," Drexler told Bloom at the time.
His transition to the new team was not seamless. As he struggled to find a new rhythm the Rockets were nearly eliminated from the playoffs. But the mantra "Win one for Clyde" helped to propel the team into the finals. In the semifinals against the Phoenix Suns, the Rockets came back from a three to one deficit to win the series; such a feat had not been done since 1981. The Rockets beat the Suns in three straight games, two of which were in Phoenix, to move on to beat the San Antonio Spurs. In the finals against the Orlando Magic, the Rockets won in Game 3. It was Drexler who took the final shots to win the championship. At the press conference after winning his first NBA title, Drexler maintained his characteristic low-key demeanor, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. He remarked calmly: "This is the best feeling ever for me. It finally happened."
The championship was not the only high point of 1995 for Drexler. On November 24, 1995 he made his 20,000th career point, becoming the 24th player in history to do so. Drexler had sealed his status as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History, an honor bestowed on him in 1997. Despite various injuries in the coming years, Drexler played hard for the Rockets and remained among the team's top scorers, and he was the top scorer in his last season. At the end of his playing career, Drexler was one of three players to top 20,000 points, 6,000 rebounds, and 3,000 assists in a career. He retired in March of 1998 to accept the head coaching position at his alma mater, University of Houston.
Refused to Stagnate after Retiring
Drexler viewed coaching as "a natural progression after being involved with the game for 20 years," reported Los Angeles Times contributor Lonnie White. He relished the chance to revive the university's program, which was in shambles. "I'm doing this because I love basketball and I love the university," he told Sporting News contributor Bill Mintuaglio. "From the beginning, I've said this is about wanting to give something back…being at the university once again, this is where it all started for me—this is what's important."
Before he coached his first game, Drexler's presence immediately buoyed expectations and boosted ticket sales. Drexler also attracted players to the program. To coach, Drexler approached the game in the same steady fashion he did his own playing. Houston player Chad Hendrick described Drexler as "very laid back," to White. "He doesn't have to yell because we all respect him so much. We know he's telling us the right thing whenever he tells us something…. Of course we're going to listen. I mean, he's Clyde Drexler. Everyone knows what he's meant to Houston and the game of basketball."
Drexler lasted two seasons as a coach before resigning in order to spend more time as a parent to his children. "It could not get any harder," the New York Times quoted him as saying about the struggle to be a coach and a parent. "You just can't do both." While Drexler focused on his family life, he did not stagnate. He had once reflected to Sporting News that "Each year, I try to expand my learning experience by taking on a new challenge," he told the Sporting News. "I don't want to become stagnant as a person." He spent 2001 and 2002 as an assistant coach and special assistant to Denver Nugget General Manager Kiki Vandeweghe, but then retired from sports. He explored his long-time interests in foreign languages, computers, and reading. Drexler also leant a hand running Drexler's Barbeque, a Houston restaurant started by his uncle in 1967 and run by his family ever since. Drexler did not leave the media limelight altogether; he remained a familiar face on television, providing color commentary for Houston Rocket home games, appearing on Reebok commercials, competing in Spike TV's inaugural Pros versus Joes reality television show in 2006, and even taking center stage as a contestant on Dancing with the Stars in 2007. For Drexler "winning and losing are not the measure of success," as Attner had once observed. During his playing career, as a coach, and even in retirement, Drexler proved that for him success was living a "balanced life." "I have a great life right now," Drexler told Jason Vondersmith of the Portland Tribune. "Every day is a blessing. My wife and I get to spend our time watching the kids grow up. I really enjoy it."
Sources
Books
Kelly, J., Clyde Drexler, Chelsea House, 1997.
Periodicals
Columbian (Vancouver, WA), June 15, 1995, p. 1; March 4, 2001, p. B1; March 6, 2001, p. B5.
Current Biography, January 1996, p. 10.
Los Angeles Times, June 2, 1992; November 29, 1998, p. 1.
Oregonian, May 27, 1992.
Philadelphia Inquirer, June 2, 1992.
Portland Tribune, December 12, 2003.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer, June 15, 1995, p. D7; April 6, 2004, p. D12.
Seattle Times, June 11, 1995, p. D5.
Sporting News, May 18, 1992; February 22, 1999, p. 10.
Sports Illustrated, June 11, 1990; January 27, 1992; May 11, 1992; January 16, 1995, p. 62; February 27, 1995, p. 78.
Drexler, Clyde
DREXLER, Clyde
(b. 22 June 1962 in New Orleans, Louisiana), one of basketball's all-time great guards who was a ten-time National Basketball Association (NBA) All-Star, a member of the 1992 Olympic "Dream Team," and a dominant player during the 1980s and 1990s.
Drexler, the third of seven children, was four years old when his mother, Eunice Drexler Scott, moved the family to Houston. A single parent, she made sure that all of her children understood the importance of getting an education and that they always completed their schoolwork thoroughly and accurately. In the 1980s she established the successful Drexler's Barbecue restaurant near the campus of the University of Houston. Drexler's father, James, worked for the Carbon Black Chemical Company.
At six feet, seven inches tall and 222 pounds, Drexler acquired the nickname "The Glide" because of his smooth and effortless high-flying moves to the basketball hoop. His professional basketball career began on a junior high school playground in Houston, where he made his first dunk shot. However, Drexler's interest in sports began earlier, with Little League baseball and basketball. His fascination with the dunk began when he was fifteen years old and six feet, one inch tall. The first time Drexler made his magic dunk shot he towered over two other opponents as he went toward the rim, even though the basket was a foot higher than regulations required.
Drexler initially declined to try out for the high school basketball team because he felt it would take too much time away from his studies. In Drexler's junior year at Sterling High School, the basketball coach persuaded him and his mother that he should play. Drexler's hard work, dedication, and competitive spirit led to his consistent improvement during his two years at Sterling. By the end of his second year he had played every position on the team. As a senior, he was named the team's Most Valuable Player (MVP) and made the All-Houston Independent School District team. Drexler graduated from high school in 1980.
For college, Drexler decided to stay near home in familiar surroundings and attended the University of Houston, where he first played with the center Hakeem Olajuwon and with Larry Michaeux. They became known as the Fraternity Dunk. Drexler described his team's semifinal game against Louisville at the National Collegiate Athletic Association Final Four as the highlight of his college career. In 1983 the Houston Cougars made it to their second Final Four Championship tournament. The team ranked among the nation's dominant college teams and was called Phi Slamma Jama for their above-the-rim acrobatics. Also in 1983 Drexler was named the Southwest Conference Player of the Year.
According to the Houston coach Guy Lewis, Drexler developed into one of the nation's best two-way guards. His leaping ability and smooth moves to the basket brought him to national prominence. Lewis described Drexler as a superlative defensive player due to his quickness, good hands, and great anticipation. Drexler was the focal point of Houston's transition game, excelling more as a scorer than as a shooter. He scored and rebounded in double figures in forty-five games during his college career, becoming the first Houston player to score more than 1,000 points, grab over 900 rebounds, and collect over 300 assists. Drexler also finished as a record holder in career steals with 268.
In 1983 Drexler decided to forego his senior year in college and entered the professional NBA draft pool. He was chosen in the first round (fourteenth overall) by the Portland Trail Blazers. His first two seasons in Oregon were a time of orientation to the professional game. In the 1985–1986 season, Drexler's third with the Blazers, he became an NBA All-Star, repeating this honor for ten successive seasons thereafter. Drexler stayed with the Trail Blazers for more than eleven seasons, going to the playoffs each year. Portland sports fans felt that Drexler did not always get the recognition he deserved because he was a quiet star in a city removed from intense media hype.
In Drexler's early years with the Trail Blazers, the team usually lost early in the finals. They gradually acquired additional talent and became one of the NBA's power-houses in the early 1990s. As Portland developed into a contender, recognition came to Drexler. The Blazers went to the NBA finals in 1990 and 1992 and the conference finals in 1991. In the 1990–1991 season Drexler earned All-NBA Second Team honors. The following season was his most memorable; he averaged twenty-five points (fourth in the league), became the second Trail Blazer in history to make the All-NBA First Team, and finished second to Michael Jordan in MVP balloting. The finale to his season was earning a gold medal at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, with the Dream Team.
In the next two NBA seasons Drexler was hampered by injuries and his production fell. In the 1994–1995 season he indicated that he wanted to be traded, and in February 1995 Drexler was reunited with his college teammate Olajuwon, joining the Houston Rockets. Working together, the two powered the Rockets to the 1995 NBA Championship. However, hampered by injuries, Drexler announced that the 1997–1998 season would be his last as a professional player. In four seasons with the Rockets, Drexler averaged 19 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 5.4 assists. He joined Calvin Murphy, Moses Malone, and the Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich as the only former Houston players to have their jersey numbers retired (Drexler was 22). In his fifteen-season NBA career, Drexler scored 22,195 points for eighteenth on the career list, with 6,677 rebounds and 6,125 assists.
In 1998 Drexler returned to the University of Houston as the head basketball coach. In 2000 he announced his retirement from that position, explaining he had "enjoyed coaching the Cougars in the past two seasons. It gave me the opportunity to give back to my alma mater. I like being involved with basketball on a daily basis, but I felt that I needed to step away and spend more time with my kids. Right now I want to concentrate on my family." Besides spending time with his wife, Gaynelle, whom he married in December 1988, and their four children, Drexler continued his community involvement after retirement. While in Portland he served as an honorary spokesman for the Blazer Avia Scholastic Improvement Concepts Program, designed to encourage academic achievement. In Houston, he sponsored an inner-city youth summer basketball camp.
An extensive biography of Drexler is in African-American Sports Greats (1995). A complete NBA statistical record is posted at the website <http://www.nba.com/playerfile>.
Johnnieque B. Love