Basketball Hall-of-Famer and Dream Team member Clyde Drexler is denying statements attributed to him in a new book in which he allegedly spoke out against fellow Dream Team member Magic Johnson.
In Jack McCallum’s book about the 1992 USA Olympic Basketball Team, “Dream Team,” McCallum quoted Drexler making sharp comments about Johnson’s ability to play professional basketball at the time, and about his HIV diagnosis.
“‘Magic was always,’ and Drexler goes into a decent Magic impression: ‘Come on, Clyde, come on, Clyde, get with me, get with me,’ and making all that noise. And, really, he couldn’t play much by that time. He couldn’t guard his shadow,’” Drexler said, according an excerpt from the book as reported by sports news web site Deadspin.
“But you have to have to understand what was going on then. Everybody kept waiting for Magic to die,” Drexler continued, in the book. “Every time he’d run up the court everybody would feel sorry for the guy, and he’d get all that benefit of the doubt. Magic came across like, ‘All this is my stuff.’ Really? Get outta here, dude. He was on the declining end of his career.”
Drexler has denied making the comments, saying it is “totally ludicrous” that he said those things.
“Magic and I have a friendship that goes back more than 28 years, and I would never say such hurtful things,” Drexler’s told the Associated Press. “I have reached out to Magic to assure him that I did not say those things and to apologize to him and his family for even having to respond to something as baseless as this.”
However, McCallum has stood by his reporting and his recording of Drexler’s comments, telling the AP that he was uncomfortable writing about what Drexler said.
“Now, is there an element of truth to it? I can’t say for sure,” McCallum told the AP. “What’s clear, though, is that it was extremely impolitic of Drexler to say it. And let me emphasize again that he wasn’t talking about the Dream Teamers , but more the league in general.”