SMOOTH: (adjective) - free from difficulties or impediments; even and uninterrupted in flow or flight; excessively and often artfully suave <he is a smooth operator>.
That's how I would describe Clyde the Glide's game: silky smooth. Whether he's pulling up from 15 feet to drain jumpers over defenders, or when he's effortlessly gliding to the basket for another signature tomahawk poster, Clyde Drexler makes basketball look effortless, it's unfair.
The 6'7" former Portland Trailblazer and Houston Rocket talks a smooth game too. Oooooweeee look out now. The guy dishes puns and punchlines the way he broke ankles and swished J's during his playing days.
Among all the NBA stars and legends I've met, The Glide is by far the humblest one of em. Kobe was cheerful but you could feel that he could switch to killer mode when provoked on the court, Gary Payton talked and goofed around a LOT, Tim Hardaway was fun as heck. Clyde's different in that he speaks of his experiences with tempered nostalgia, always careful to point out how much he respected the game, his teammates and ESPECIALLY his opponents.
He smiled as I asked him about the talented Trailblazers of the late 80s to the early 90s. "Kevin Duckworth and Terry Porter were some fine teammates. Them, Jerome Kersey, I truly enjoyed playing the game with those guys and I hope they enjoyed playing with me."
He lights up even brighter as he recounts his 1992 Dream Team experience. "That was one of my ultimate experiences, to be on a team with superstars like Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Chris Mullin, Scottie Pippen, and we won the gold medal. It was an honor for me to be part of the team."
On reviving Phi Slamma Jamma as he teamed up with Hakeem Olajuwon during the Rockets' '95 title run: "Hakeem's one of my best friends, and it really made me happy to be able to play with him and win a title."
But if you ask the Glide, it's not so much the accolades he racked up - 10-time All Star, NBA Champion, Olympic Gold medalist, one of the NBA's 50 Greatest Players - that makes him happily look back at his career, but it was every single day he put on the number 22 and went out to play the game that he loved with every single bit of his being. "Everytime I put my jersey on, I went out there and did my best, because I was doing what I loved. How many people can say that? The best thing about my playing days are those playing days, every single day that I went out to do what I love, and that's to play basketball".
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