50 Greatest Basketball Players Ever - 31 to 40 on our Best NBA Players list

#38 Clyde Drexler

Clyde Drexler #22

Career per-game averages: 20.4 points, 6.1 rebounds, 5.4 assists, 2.0 steals, 0.7 blocks

Shooting splits: 47.2% from the field, 31.8% on 3-pointers, 78.8% on free throws

Accolades: NBA Champion (1995), All-NBA First Team (1992), 2-time All-NBA Second Team (1988, 1991), 2-time All-NBA Third Team (1990, 1995), 10-time NBA All Star (1986, 1988-1994, 1996, 1997)

Drexler was selected by the Portland Trail Blazers with the 14th overall pick in the 1983 NBA draft. He averaged 7.7 points in 17.2 minutes per game in his rookie season. His second season allowed him to register a breakout, as he averaged 17.2 points, 6 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 2.2 steals per game.

His dominance as an athlete allowed him to make the leap to being a star player this early in his career. By his third season, Drexler had made his first All-Star team with per-game averages of 18.5 points, 5.6 rebounds, 8 assists and 2.6 steals.

In the 1989–1990 season, Drexler led the Portland Trail Blazers to the NBA Finals, averaging 26.4 points and 7.8 rebounds, but his team lost to the Detroit Pistons in five games. In the 1990–1991 season Drexler led Portland to a franchise-best 63–19 record. Heavily favored to win the West, the Los Angeles Lakers upset the Trail Blazers by winning the Western Conference Finals.

In the 1991–92 season he made the All-NBA First Team and finished second to Michael Jordan in MVP voting. He met Jordan's Chicago Bulls in the NBA Finals that same season only to fall short, as Jordan and the Bulls went on to win their second consecutive championship. In the six-game series against Chicago, Drexler averaged 24.8 points, 7.8 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game.

In 1992, he was selected to the U.S. Olympic basketball team, nicknamed "The Dream Team", which won the gold medal in Barcelona.

On February 14, 1995, with the Blazers out of serious contention for a championship, Portland honored Drexler's request to be traded to a contender and sent the Blazers great back home to the Houston Rockets, along with Tracy Murray in exchange for Otis Thorpe, the draft rights of Marcelo Nicola, and a 1995 first round draft pick in mid-season, right before the trade deadline.

Despite finishing the regular season with a record of 47–35, which placed the Rockets 6th out of 8 playoff teams in the Western Conference, Drexler and long-time friend Hakeem Olajuwon helped propel them to an improbable second consecutive championship in 1995, sweeping the Orlando Magic. In his third and final NBA Finals appearance, Drexler averaged 21.5 points, 9.5 rebounds and 6.8 assists per game.