Portland Trail Blazers: 25 Best Players To Play For The Trail Blazers
By Phil Watson
Clyde Drexler was the face of Phi Slamma Jamma, an athletic, high-flying, slam-dunking Houston team that reached the NCAA championship game, with Drexler earning All-America honors while averaging nearly 16 points, nine rebounds and four assists per game as a junior.
He turned pro and was taken with the 14th overall pick in the 1983 NBA Draft by the Portland Trail Blazers.
After a year of adjusting to the NBA pace, Drexler became a regular in 1984-85 and went on to become an eight-time All-Star and a four-time All-NBA selection for the Blazers, finishing second in the MVP voting in 1991-92 and fifth in 1987-88.
He was fourth in the league in scoring in 1988-89 and fifth in 1991-92, finished third in steals in 1985-86 and fifth in 1986-87, 1987-88 and 1988-89. Drexler also was second in minutes per game in 1988-89.
Drexler helped the Blazers to the NBA Finals in 1990 and 1992, as well.
He averaged 26.4 points, 7.8 rebounds, 6.2 assists and 1.8 steals in 40.8 minutes per game, shooting .543/2-for-12/.757 in a five-game loss to the Detroit Pistons in 1990.
Two years later, he put up 24.8 points, 7.8 rebounds, 5.3 assists, 1.3 steals and a block in 39.7 minutes per game on .407/.150/.893 shooting in a six-game loss to the Chicago Bulls in 1992.
In February 1995, Drexler was traded to with Tracy Murray to the Houston Rockets in exchange for Otis Thorpe, the rights to Marcelo Nicola and a first-round pick in 1995.
In parts of 12 seasons in Portland, Drexler averaged 20.8 points, 6.2 rebounds, 5.7 assists and 2.1 steals in 34 minutes per game, shooting .478/.303/.789.
With the Rockets, Drexler went to two more All-Star games and was an All-NBA selection in 1994-95, helping Houston to an NBA title in 1995. He retired in May 1998 to assume the head coaching duties at his alma mater, where he was 19-39 in two seasons.
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Inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2004, Drexler is 49th in NBA history with 37,537 minutes played, 32nd with 6,125 assists, 30th with 22,195 points, seventh with 2,207 steals, 48th with an average of 20.4 points per game and 11th with an average of 2.0 steals per game.