Clyde The Slide? -- Drexler Glides Back Into Graces In Era Of Portland Success

PORTLAND - It had become tradition. The Trail Blazers being dismissed summarily from the NBA playoffs was as dependable an occasion in Portland as the arrival of winter rain and the summer Rose Festival. Four years (1986-89), four straight first-round ousters.

When the fingers inevitably pointed, they most often pointed in the direction of Clyde Drexler, the star of those star-crossed teams.

Throughout his lofty, skywalking basketball career, from his Phi Slamma Jamma days at the University of Houston to his formative years in Portland, Drexler was known as "Clyde the Glide." Because of the Blazers' first-round follies, the monicker changed to "Clyde the Slide."

Like his team, Drexler was considered a winter flower who blossomed during the regular season, but wilted during the heat of the playoffs. Labeled, at worst, a choker, he could not have picked a better time to slip the noose.

Last year, he got better as the playoffs progressed, and the pressure built. His 16-point average during a 3-0, first-round sweep of Dallas improved to 26.4 during the NBA final against Detroit. He scored 33 points (on 13-for-20 shooting), passed for 10 assists and hit the game-winning free throws in overtime in Game 2, the Blazers' only victory. He had 34 points (on 14-for-19 shooting), 10 assists and eight rebounds as Portland fell two points short in Game 4.

With the nation's attention focused on him, Drexler revealed the heart of a champion. Perceptions changed. Suddenly, the player once criticized for an inability to deliver in the playoffs was acclaimed as one of the game's premier clutch performers.

"No question, he was a different player," said teammate Buck Williams, who was dealt by New Jersey to Portland before the 1989-90 season. "I'd never seen him step up and take over games in the playoffs like that. The kind of player he is, that's what he has to do. And that's what he did."

The supposed role reversal amuses Drexler, whose club is preparing to open the 1991 NBA playoffs against Seattle tomorrow night.

"It's incredible, isn't it?" he said. "I'm the same guy now that I was when people were saying all those things."

The focus has been on his scoring, yet he has for years been among the league leaders in steals and among the top rebounding and shot-blocking guards. Known primarily for his open-court dunkathons, he steadily has improved his jump shot to the point of hitting a career-high 31.9 percent from three-point range this season. Considered by some as selfish, he has averaged 6.38 assists a game over the past six seasons.

Still, Drexler also acquired the rap of being a problem player. The problem was he didn't like losing and never hesitated about saying so. Losing revealed his previously private rifts with ex-Portland head coaches Jack Ramsay and Mike Schuler, two control freaks whose old-school philosophies cast Drexler's need for freedom as a lack of discipline.

"Clyde is a very outspoken person, and I think that really worked to his detriment," Williams said. "He's a man who says what's on his mind, and a lot of people can't deal with that. When you're an extrovert like Clyde, you have a tendency to draw some criticism."

Drexler said, "If you like losing, you can just shut up and lose, year after year. The only thing I've gotten in trouble for was opening my mouth. The only problems I've ever had came when my teams lost."

The Blazers' playoff maladies are rooted in that they simply may not have been good enough or experienced enough. They relied heavily on an open-court attack, good enough to carry a team through an itinerant regular season but not during a more-focused postseason. When the playoffs demanded an offensive switch from fast break to halfcourt, Drexler was robbed of his forte, and so was Portland.

The situation changed dramatically when Drexler's supporting cast was fortified. Williams, Danny Ainge and Walter Davis, all proven veterans, were added. In a way, so were Kevin Duckworth, Jerome Kersey and Terry Porter, longtime Blazers who matured into solid performers.

Bucky Buckwalter, the team's vice president for basketball, ignored the mounting cries to deal Drexler. He simply added to him - perhaps the most important addition being a more-tolerant head coach in Rick Adelman.

As an example of their commitment to Drexler, the Blazers signed him to a contract extension that keeps him in a Portland uniform through the 1995-96 season, during which he will earn $8 million.

"Clyde has matured," Buckwalter said. "He feels more comfortable with how he contributes to the team. He is our leader on the floor."

Adelman said, "In the past, there was tremendous pressure on Clyde to do everything. In a playoff situation, your opponents are going to focus on your best player. They'll try to take things away from him. Now, we have answers when that happens. We're a better team. Clyde has been the same player all along."

Drexler's diverse, Michael Jordanlike numbers were good enough to earn five NBA All-Star Game appearances. Now he is scoring fewer points but prompting more consideration as a candidate for the league's most valuable player.

The difference? His team, which had the NBA's best record at 63-19, is winning. That's enough to make him, and everyone else, forget about the past.

"Two years ago, I wasn't enough of a leader," Drexler said. "Now I'm a great leader. But I didn't change. That's why I don't believe the hype, one way or another."

; SONICS-BLAZERS; ; FIRST ROUND; ; (Best-of-five series); ; -- Tomorrow - at Portland, 7:30 p.m.; ; -- Sunday - at Portland, 6:30 p.m.; ; -- Tuesday - at Seattle, 7 p.m.; ; -- Thursday, May 2 - at Seattle, TBA, if necessary.; ; -- Saturday, May 4 - at Portland, TBA, if necessary.;