Michael Jordan 1988: 52pts vs. Drexler & Portland Trailblazers

[vidaa82]

in 1988 mj did EVERYTHING except sell popcorn and win a championship. that was his year.

[dannyboygeorge22]

I can't believe Drexler Would Switch on the bulls Pick & roll with Mj.. Lazy . 1988 Jordan

is a Beast.. At Both Ends

[badpdx]

Just think if there'd been no Michael Jordan . . .everybody would have wanted to be like Clyde. MJ probably robbed Clyde of $25 mil in endorsements.

[scorpionJB]

@badpdx loolll

[jasonmotley]

Good game by MJ and Clyde. Wish MJ didn't serve up the shot at the end like that. He did apologize, probably realized he went too far.

[slimdogg3325]

clyde wasnt underrated. jordan made many would be legends looks like amateurs

[Zequiman2011]

Michael Jordan is the greatest. Clyde and Kobe are similar, the difference is that Kobe played with Shaq and formed with him an unstoppable duo, winning three rings. The other two rings was with Gasol but the team was good. But Drexler never had a great partner, only in Houston in 1995 with Hakeem when mj retired.

[kuriaki71]

mj thee greatest

[Paniro123]

During the 1992 Olympics Drexler accidentally showed up to practice with two left sneakers and he played in them because he didnt want to speak up and be embarrassed. MJ had shaken his confidence so badly that Bird asked him to ease up so that Drexler could be of some use to them. I love Clyde and it sucks that Portland didnt draft MJ. It would have been great to have them on the same team.

[badpdx]

@Paniro123: that's not exactly true. Clyde's family was in the hotel room with him, and he decided not to turn on the light in the morning when he grabbed his shoes. He didn't notice until he went to put them on, then simply didn't care. I saw him on Arsenio Hall right after the Olympics and he told the story himself. It had nothing to do with MJ.

[badpdx]

@Paniro123: also, the thing with MJ vs. Clyde in practice is overblown as well. Clyde (and Charles Barkley) simply didn't care enough about the practices because Team USA was killing everyone by 40 points. They looked at the Olympics as more of a vacation. MJ and Magic, on the other hand, couldn't turn if off as easily. The real "hard feelings" practices were between the two of them, when MJ taunted Magic for being obsolete. If Bird asked MJ to ease up, it was because he was being a jerk.

[dizza213]

I want to see the full game!!!

[Kestrel222]

The Glide was such a class act. Truly amazing player

[TBlake34]

"Good game, Clyde. I'll see you in four years. First, I'm going to humiliate you in the finals, then I'm going smash whatever ego you have left by attacking you like a starved lion every day during Dream Team practice."

-MJ

[loutcb]

Clyde 42 pts 12 assts Portland wins. Mj with punkass cheap shot. sore loser.

[redfanrod]

Nice cheap shot, Jordan, at 8:51... slams Clyde to the floor. Jordan never took losing very well. Yeah, I'm still a jealous Blazer fan...

[kennygriff24]

Clyde got plenty of credit he was a great scorer on a great team. Its just Michael was better. MJ shined on the big stage, while Drexler and the Blazer made it to 2 Finals and lost both.

[thegoldenhero]

drexler was smash jordan....jordan still the goat

[stromonie]

mark pfeil

[PJHunterTJ]

good call by the commentators on the foul at the end. Now days we have creepy commentators that would call it a good foul.

[PJHunterTJ]

They don't dunk like that anymore

[PJHunterTJ]

To me Drexler is the second best Sg ever.

[quanp1]

get the fuck outta here kobe is better than him hands down

[LTG22]

@quanp1 Who's better? You saying Kobe is better than Drexler? I would concede that. Course Kobe had a lot of help comin up, but yeah he is better. At first I thought you were sayin Kobe is better than Jordan, I was about to throw my computer out the door.

[quanp1]

talkin bout drexler

[jshu1988]

Damn.... Flagrant foul by MJ at the end.

[vcuhustlah]

damn i think mj wasnt fully developed here and clyde kinda owned hm mj wasnt a big dog yet he was fast and could shot and score but wen his prime came thats wen he was bodyin ppl

[skills1ent]

The skill level and intensity was so much higher in that era! Thanks hoopsencyclopedia you always provide nothing but excellence!

[onthestix]

Going knee-to-knee...that junk hurts. It'll sting for a minute, but man it stays with you. Clyde was a beast, very underrated.

[hoopfan71]

And younger guys say there were no athletes back in the day that could compete with Jordan, which is why he was so dominant. I'd like to see some of today's players try to guard Drexler.

[skywolf23]

yea i think clyde got enough credit in his day. but common when there is michael jordan all the other shooting guards get downgraded several notches, because as good as they were none of them could keep up with him.

love this vid early jordan showing that ability to take over a game on both ends, it just got better as he got more experience and smarter.

[timfosho]

lol 4:36 some Paul Pierce shit right there

[uberathlete]

@timfosho except that its legitimate.

[jeditwinz]

@timfosho MJ was actually hurt unlike Paul Pierce.  The replay showed the shot he took to the knee

[fundyspokerblog]

@jeditwinz Paul Pierce would have been out for the next two months. lol

[jeditwinz]

@fundyspokerblog Probably would have been taken out on a stretcher

[fundyspokerblog]

@jeditwinz Hahahahaha! No kidding. Biggest creampuff bitch in all of basketball. Well, maybe he ties with Manu Ginobli

[Obi1BenoBEE30]

@fundyspokerblog HAHAHAHAHA THAT HAD ME ROLLIN

[WuTangKlanz]

That was nasty...only Michael can get up and play after something like that.

[ForEmily4]

Kobe Bryant isn't capable of dreaming about being this good.

[imclean111]

@ForEmily4 Dont bring Kobe into this, talk about lebitch instead

[RocaWeaR4]

Nice vintage MJ and Clyde (Clyde is way underrated)

[chrisx2k6]

@RocaWeaR4 Explain how he is underrated.

[RocaWeaR4]

@chrisx2k6

Explain how he's not? He is a great player and at some point i think he is 2nd best SG his game and everything he has done shows it....

[AronDizzyD]

Damn those AJlll's r so crispy!!!

[uberathlete]

MJ and Glide were such beasts in the 80s. Crazy.

[diplomat65]

R.I.P. Kevin Duckworth

[smoove82]

i hate to see big scoring games from heroes of the past in losing efforts, all the 50 point games him and other players like Iverson had I hate to watch em and in the end it's an L

[gryd999]

Man, that was fun to watch

[kspaintballer93]

nice quality

[kinkdinkling]

did i hear MJ squealing like a pig at 4:15-4:22 ? he's still the GOAT X2

[VinmanMJ23]

Thanks for posting this hoops. You da man!

Check out the statistics at 2:56:

"Leads NBA in Scoring: 33.7"

"Leads NBA in Steals: 3.43"

No one has ever played both ends of the court like that.

[hoopfan71]

@VinmanMJ23 That's a great example of MJ's dominance on the game.

[Flowerofchaos]

5.20 what a move by drexler!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[uberathlete]

Drexler was a beast.

[batrama310]

What a foul at the end. I wonder what would happen today if that took place?

[wobblegook]

@batrama310 seriously, that is like a flagrant 7 in the league today. That was a ridiculously hard foul.

[chrisx2k6]

@batrama310 They don't play that physical any more...Part of the reason I don't watch as much...With the thuggish attitude that most players display, a foul like that would cause both benches to clear...Back then, any physicality was part of the game unless a punch was thrown etc...Everybody is at the fucking FT line on every drive nowadays...Too soft for my tastes...MJ GOAT!!

[thewolfmanchu]

In the 1984 draft, the blazers past on Michael Jordan because they already had a great shooting guard. Clyde Drexler!

[BananaShake21]

the move at 5:58

is that a travel???

[va3svd]

@BananaShake21 No, he fumbled the ball (or it was stripped, can't say) and went back up to get control of it. Travelling cannot occur when you don't have control of the ball.

[brian05fubu]

every game was a highlight reel for MJ. it's funny how MJ's one game is more fantastic than kobe's career highlight lol.

[babithk]

MJ played the game too beautifully

[TheJuicer83]

What guard or forward can even put up these kind of numbers without even having to attempt a single 3 pointer like MJ?

[diplomat65]

Clyde and MJ put on a show

[d3peeto]

i just wish we had the super slow mo cameras back then .. but then again thats the mystique of Jordan

[flight23magic32]

What's the final score of this game?

[flight23magic32]

5.31...MJ showing that he's probably the only guy who would put up a brick and still make you go OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And that's exactly what happened to me right now...and it has happened to me b4 too...

[fancyleaf]

7:52 He wrapped around two men and shoot. Never seen such a ridiculous move before!

[MrEternity1]

l0l. The commentator is yelling get it in his hand!

[DerrickRoseFTW]

clyde is under appreciated but mike demonstrated his will to takeover a game above all.

[method526]

young mike! what a menace to the defense.

[ShinAkuma21]

this is one of those games where jordan team just stare at him and did contribute

[gamachy]

Clyde was great, but Michael was amazing.

Thanks a lot hoopsencyclopedia

[killerfocker]

52 pts and they still lost, one man team and shit

[roy1015]

@killerfocker bulls is the best oneman team, 6 champs.

thats why make mj the greatest, give him another star there will be bulls' world forever

[thecreed03]

@roy1015 yea if jordan didn't retire the first time for 1.5 years, the bulls would've had 8 straight championships.

[8cali94]

clyde drexler was very underrated

[cicero5759]

@8cali94 he wasnt underated he was overshadowed by the best!!!! MJ

[chrisx2k6]

@8cali94 He got the credit he deserved...He was mediocre from the outside and couldn't dribble with his left...His defense was also suspect. His status as an NBA Superstar was well deserved though, and this he got.

[TBlake34]

@chrisx2k6 That's a good summary.

You can't complain about your place in history when, with apologies to David Robinson, you had the most high-profile humiliation at the hands of your chief rival. That 1992 Finals, then the Dream Team practices when Magic had to tell MJ to take it easy on Clyde, sort of set everything in its proper place.

[badpdx]

@chrisx2k6: Sorry this is a little late, but I couldn't resist.

Early in his career, Drexler was mediocre from outside, had suspect defense and dribbled to his right more often than not (though nobody stopped him anyway). In his prime, he became a reliable, even good, outside shooter, could dribble left or right equally well, and improved his position defense tremendously. He was overshadowed, however, by great players like Magic, Michael, and Bird.

Clyde was great; MJ was better.

[SnoopFroggyFrog]

Clyde didn't get the credit he deserved

[NBA1529]

@SnoopFroggyFrog awwww I'm sorry..

[char4ever]

how many times after MJ is hurt in a game, he came right back with the same game, or even a better game.