The 50 greatest players in NBA history, ranked by win shares
By Cal Durrett
Greatest NBA Player #34: Clyde Drexler-135.57
Portland Trail Blazers’ great Clyde Drexler is considered to be one of the best shooting guards ever. Unfortunately for him, he was often overshadowed by another all-time great shooting guard, Michael Jordan. Ironically, the two might have been teammates had the Blazers had the forethought to pair them together rather than pass on Jordan because they already had Drexler.
That did come back to bite them, but not before they built a winning team around Drexler. They made the playoffs in each of his first six seasons before making the NBA Finals in 1990, the Western Conference Finals in 1991, and the NBA Finals again in 1992. Despite three deep playoff runs, the Blazers failed to win a championship, leading to his asking to be traded.
Although he never carried a team to a championship in Portland, being the best player on two Finals teams is still plenty impressive. Particularly in the 1990s, with the Rockets, Spurs, Jazz, and Supersonic all being led by future Hall of Famers at the time. Drexler finished his career as a Houston Rocket, helping Hakeem Olajuwon win a championship in 1994–1995, and retired in 1998.
Ranking 34th all-time in win shares is surprisingly low at first glance for someone as well-rounded as Drexler was. He is one of only a handful of players to post at least 20,000 points, 6,000 rebounds, and 6,000 assists. And while he never made a defensive team, his defensive stats are deceptively good, even ranking 11th in career steals.
Perhaps it has more to do with him not being as efficient as other prominent shooting guards of the era or having as high of an offensive peak. Overall, 34 is perhaps fitting for Drexler.