Vernon Maxwell was one of the toughest dudes in the NBA during his day. This man did not take any nonsense from anyone — not even his teammates. So much so, that he once literally attempted to stab Houston Rockets teammate Hakeen Olajuwon during a wild halftime fight.
Maxwell made his revelation during a recent guesting on the No Chill with Gilbert Arenas Podcast, and quite honestly, this is without a doubt one of, if not the most insane NBA fight I’ve ever heard of.
It all started when Maxwell started confronting his teammates following a poor first-half showing by the Rockets. Apparently, Maxwell’s fiery tirade did not sit well with Olajuwon, who in turn, decided to slap the former right across the face (h/t Paul Kasabian of Bleacher Report):
“I said, ‘God damn, this motherf–ker slapped the s–t out of me,'” Maxwell recalled. “That motherfu–er hit me so hard, man, [he] knocked me out the chair.
“I jumped up, grabbed my chair, and throwed it at [that] motherf–ker, bust the glass in the locker room. Everybody running out. Police come in with the guns drawn, like ‘what the hell goin’ on in here?'”
Maxwell then said that he picked up a big piece of glass on the floor and he wanted to “stab the s–t out of him.” Thankfully, the police intervened quickly.
“Damn, they got the guns on me at a professional halftime. At a professional game,” he said.
Things could have gotten much worse had the police not been on their toes. If you have any idea about who Vernon Maxwell is and the reputation he had, you’d know that he wasn’t kidding here and that he was indeed serious about stabbing his superstar teammate.
The pair eventually sorted things out and made amends. According to Maxwell, Olajuwon converted to Islam not long after the scary incident. It was at that point that they were eventually able to work on their relationship as teammates:
“After that, [Hakeem] became Muslim,” Maxwell said. “He was so quiet. So humble. So, [he] wanted me to become Muslim. I couldn’t do it. But, he was a great teammate after that.”
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