Drexler: 'Blasphemy at best' to dub MJ or LeBron the GOAT

Michael Jordan took a bit of a swipe at Clyde Drexler in "The Last Dance," saying that while Drexler was a threat to the Chicago Bulls in the early 1990s, he "took offense" to being compared to him at the time.

Almost three decades later, Drexler has his own opinion: Neither Jordan nor LeBron James should automatically be called the NBA's greatest player of all time.

"I have a real problem with that, because out of all the guys that played the game, for you to have a conversation of these two guys as the GOAT when you've got Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, two of the greatest players to ever live - I think you start with those two," Drexler told SportsTalk 790's "The A-Team."

"And then you've got guys like Dr. J (Julius Erving), Larry Bird, George Gervin, Elgin Baylor, Oscar Robertson, Jerry West. All those guys are in the conversation, and so for people to bring this up today, to me it's just unbelievable. And I love Michael and LeBron. But still, let's not take something away from those other guys who played."

Drexler, whose NBA career effectively mirrored Jordan's from 1983-98, also mentioned another old-school legend, Bill Russell.

"How are you going to say somebody is better than those guys?" Drexler said. "I just don't even get it. It's blasphemy at best. And it's always by people who have never played the game who are making these assessments because people who played the game know better. You don't put people ahead of people - nobody was better than those people."

Drexler was a 10-time All-Star with the Portland Trail Blazers and Houston Rockets. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2004.