If not for Isiah Thomas, Clyde Drexler would have been the NBA’s most hated player of all time. Not only for his beef with NBA’s greatest-ever superstar in Michael Jordan but also for saying atrocious things about Magic Johnson, who is arguably the NBA community’s favorite player of all time.
Advertisement
Drexler is one of the NBA’s greatest ever players in his own rights and is among the long list of players who did not win any or more than one championship or MVP because of the dominance of MJ, whom Clyde despised like nobody else.
However, it so hurt him for not winning any MVPs or any other individual accolades while his prime was passing that he couldn’t stop himself from saying some horrible things about Johnson’s HIV diagnosis years after both of them had retired 20 years from the game.
Clyde Drexler claimed he’d win the MVP if not for Magic Johnson’s MVP
In a decade-old interview with the Wall Street Journal, Magic Johnson answers a question about Drexler’s claims of the people snubbing him for MVP after Magic had an HIV diagnosis.
The Lakers’ legend spoke vividly of the 10x All-Star’s character and then his own, saying he himself focused more on winning championships than MVPs whereas the Blazers forward always wanted more media attention and individual accolades than winning.
“I don’t talk about MVPs, it’s funny to talk about MVPs, he’s not talking about Championships?” Magic said.
Also read: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Credits Magic Johnson For Teaching Him How to Let Out His Emotions During Games
Magic Johnson fought HIV and became an example to the world
Johnson never cared about winning an All-Star Game MVP in a year he wasn’t able to play basketball when he was still willing to. If that’s the MVP Drexler claimed he deserved because the regular season MVP was won by MJ and the man excelled over him statistically by a gigantic margin.
Johnson also spoke about his personality later in the interview, saying he didn’t even think about why did he get HIV and no one else. He always took on the challenge of whatever life threw at him, and never complained as Drexler does.
It’s so not right for a man in his 50s, who made it to NBA’s 50 greatest-ever players to cry about what he thinks he deserved and did not win. Saying it out loud while trying to tarnish a world-famous athlete and HIV/AIDS activist was foolishness too.
