Houston Rockets’ 1996 squad is “a super team,” contrary to Charles Barkley’s belief, says Clyde Drexler
Earlier in July NBA Hall of Famer, Charles Barkley weighed in on Super Teams and stated he was against them.
“I would rather not win than be on a super team,” Barkley told Fred Ennette on the Unnecessary Roughness podcast.
“It doesn’t matter what option you are. Sports are about competition. It’s about competition. Like, I admire Patrick Ewing for trying to bring a championship to New York. I admire Reggie Miller for trying to bring a championship. I admire Michael Jordan for not leaving when they got beat by the Pistons every year. He didn’t pack up and say, ‘Let me play with Magic [Johnson] or [Larry] Bird.'”
But weren’t the Houston Rockets team that Chuck joined with Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler, a super team?
“I would consider that a super team,” Clyde Drexler told me on the Big 3’s weekly conference call.
“You know, Charles says a lot of stuff, you know, who’s right and who’s wrong. But we’re not going to get into that. A team with three or more Hall of Famers at the same time and they still pretty much got a lot left in the tank, I would consider that a super team.”
Drexler also broke down his pure definition of super team. “I do know that super teams are not a new phenomenon,” he said.
“They’ve been happening for years. Bill Russell played with 5 Hall of Famers at the same time and that’s why he won 11 championships in 13 years. On top of being phenomenal, you’ve got 5 to 6 hall of famers that you’re playing with.”
Drexler says that the Lakers had super teams: “You’ve got Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar], [James] Worthy, Magic [Johnson], c’mon,” he said.
Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson discusses NBA free agency on CNN.
“And then you got [Ben] McAdoo, Mychal Thompson, you’ve got Byron Scott, A.C. Green, Kurt Rambis; all these great players–Michael Cooper–same time playing very high level. That’s what super teams are all about and then.”
Drexler, furthered his Boston Celtics super team theory:
“Celtics with [Larry] Bird, [Kevin] McHale, [Robert] Parish, [Danny] Ainge, Gerald Henderson, ‘Cornbread Maxwell,’” he said.
“I mean, that’s a super team and they’ve always been around. The super teams usually win. Because why? They’re very talented and they know how to play the game!”
Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson is the host of the Scoop B Radio Podcast. A senior writer at Basketball Society, he’s had stops as a staff writer at The Source Magazine, as a columnist and podcast host at CBS and as an editor at RESPECT. Magazine. In his downtime, he enjoys traveling, swimming and finding new sushi restaurants.
Follow Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson on Twitter: @ScoopB, Instagram: @Scoop_B & Facebook: ScoopB.
