Sportswriter Vince Murray called Clyde "the best high school basketball player [he had] ever seen", and Barry McDermott of Sports Illustrated described Clyde as "a superior individual basketball talent", but Clyde's career suffered due to his repeated conflicts with other players and coaches.
In 1971, while he attended Ellsworth Community College, Clyde was voted Most Valuable Player of the year by the National Junior College Athletic Association. He later transferred to Florida State University, where he played well but clashed with his coaches. After Clyde was suspended for punching an opposing player during one game, Coach Hugh Durham described him as "thinking about himself and the hell with Florida State".
On the Celtics, Clyde played frequently in the early part of the 1974–75 season, while Don Nelson was injured. However, after Nelson's recovery, Clyde was given less playing time. Ultimately, he refused to go into a game after being tapped to play a "clean-up operation" in the last two minutes. After this incident, Clyde was benched for the remainder of the season, and turned down a contract to play with the Celtics for another season.

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