Clyde Drexler Magic Johnson
Clyde Drexler Magic Johnson, Clyde Drexler denied Wednesday making negative statements attributed to him about Magic Johnson in an upcoming book about the Dream Team.In Jack McCallum’s book, “Dream Team,” Drexler said Johnson only earned a spot on the Olympic team and the MVP award in the 1992 All-Star game out of pity resulting from his HIV diagnosis the previous year.
“He couldn’t play much by that time. He couldn’t guard his shadow,” Drexler is quoted as saying in the book. “But you have to understand what was going on then. Everybody kept waiting for Magic to die. 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.”
Drexler said in a phone interview that the quotes attributed to him were “totally ludicrous” and he has “no idea” where McCallum got them. In a statement released through the Houston Rockets, Drexler says he would’ve never said those things and that Johnson is one of his closest long-time friends.
“Magic and I have a friendship that goes back more than 28 years and I would never say such hurtful things,” Drexler’s statement said. “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.”
McCallum’s book is due out on July 10.
On his Web site, McCallum said the excerpt is accurate. Deadspin.com ran the excerpt on Tuesday, and McCallum said the site mischaracterized the context. Drexler was referring to the opinion of many people in the league, McCallum said, and not specifically members of the 1992 Olympic team.
Drexler, now an*n*lyst for the Rockets’ locally televised games, said in the statement that he was one of Johnson’s biggest supporters in the wake of the diagnosis that led to his retirement in November 1991. (Huffington Post)
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