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Basketball Hall of Famer and 1992 Olympic Dream Team member Clyde Drexler’s Olympic gold medal is up for auction, with the piece expected to draw a “small fortune,” according to TMZ Sports.
A representative for Goldin Solutions — the PR firm representing Goldin, which is managing the auction — told Heavy Sports via email that the medal “is being sold by a consignor and not Drexler,” who “previously sold it privately and is not the current owner.”
The bidding began at $250,000 on July 22, according to TMZ, and ends on August 17.
Drexler completed “a letter of authenticity back in April proclaiming he had no intentions of fighting to get the prize back at any point in the future,” TMZ reported. “He also stated in the LOA that he’ll never seek a reproduction of it through the U.S. Olympic Committee.”
The 1992 Team USA men’s basketball squad was the greatest collection of basketball talent ever assembled on one roster and the first time Team USA allowed professional basketball players to compete in the Olympics. According to Goldin, the team “elevated the sport of basketball across the globe, seeding the NBA with its current generation of talent.”
The Dream Team defeated Croatia, 117-85, in the gold-medal game in August 1992, in Barcelona, Spain.
According to Goldin, “This offering constitutes the very first appearance of a Dream Team gold medal at auction. … Scarce doesn’t begin to describe this medal.”
With only 12 original gold medals issued to members of the team, “this is possibly the only opportunity” private collectors will have to get one, the auction listing indicates.
Drexler 1 of Greatest Shooting Guards of All Time
Widely considered one of the greatest shooting guards of all time, Drexler first shot to fame as a member of the University of Houston’s famed Phi Slama Jama squad in the early 1980s alongside fellow future Hall of Famer Hakeem Olajuwon.
Drexler was the No. 14 overall pick in the 1983 NBA draft by the Portland Trail Blazers and spent most of his career there, leading the Blazers to the NBA Finals twice.
Drexler played the final four seasons of his career with the Houston Rockets, winning an NBA championship in 1995. He was also a 10-time NBA All-Star and five-time All-NBA Team selection along with being named to the NBA’s 50th Anniversary Team and 75th Anniversary Team.
Drexler, 6-foot-7, was nicknamed “Clyde the Glide” and averaged 20.4 points, 6.1 rebounds and 5.6 assists for his career. He was inducted into College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006 and the Basketball Hall of Fame twice — in 2004 as an individual and in 2017 as part of the Dream Team.
Drexler played the majority of his NBA career in the era right before NBA salaries exploded and made approximately $31 million over 15 seasons. Drexler made a career-high $9.8 million with the Rockets in 1995-1996 — equivalent to $19.6 million in today’s money.
Golden State Warriors guard and current Team USA member Stephen Curry will be the highest-paid player in the NBA in 2024-2025 at approximately $55.8 million.
Dream Team Brought Basketball to the World
The lasting legacy of the Dream Team was that they brought basketball to the world — the first time NBA players were able to show the entire globe their talents led by Chicago Bulls superstar Michael Jordan, Los Angeles Lakers point guard Magic Johnson and Boston Celtics forward Larry Bird.
Team USA has won the Olympic gold medal in every year since 1992 except for 2004. This year’s Olympic team features another galaxy of NBA stars led by LeBron James and Kevin Durant and opens Olympic play in Paris against Serbia on July 28.
Note: A previous version of this post incorrectly stated the owner of the medal at the time it was put up for auction. The medal was owned at the time by an unnamed consignor, according to a PR rep for Goldin.
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