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“Fight Me Whole Game”: Rockets Legend Amusingly Recalls Michael Jordan’s Inability to Understand His ‘Crazy’ Antics

Rishabh Bhatnagar
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"Fight Me Whole Game": Rockets Legend Amusingly Recalls Michael Jordan's Inability to Understand His 'Crazy' Antics

2-time NBA champion and Houston Rockets legend Maxwell Vernon recently spoke at the Summit State of Mind podcast. Speaking about his showdowns with Michael Jordan back during his career, Vernon revealed how MJ saw the crazy side of him. Vernon revealed a story about how he would fight MJ throughout games and once proceeded to introduce him to his son after the game. Vernon’s son was apparently wearing Jordan gear that his father wanted Jordan to sign, leading him to the conclusion that the Rockets shooting guard was “crazy as f**k.”

MJ went up against a range of talented superstars during his heyday. However, only a handful of them ended up causing him actual trouble. The ever-aggressive Vernon Maxwell was one of them and had a range of showdowns with Jordan during his Bulls years.

Vernon Maxwell was branded crazy by Michael Jordan

Maxwell was asked about his range of aggressive showdowns with Michael Jordan. He was obviously referring to the aggressive altercations that he had with MJ during multiple games.

Vernon was part of a talented Houston Rockets team which also included Hakeem Olajuwon and Kenny Smith. Maxwell revealed that it was Smith who had told him about MJ thinking he was crazy: 

“Max, he said, he wanted to fight Jordan in the game. This is when Mike said, damn, what’s up with Vernon. He walked up to Kenny and said, what’s up with this motherf***er. He is crazy as f**k man. You know what he do. He wanna fight me the whole game. And then Kenny said, Mike said, he brings his kid in there with all Michael Jordan you know? And then, he asked me to sign some shit for his son. And then Michael jordan said, man something wrong with this motherf***er. He crazy as f**k. Who does that, really?”

As it turned out, Vernon had a number of aggressive altercations with MJ. He once proceeded to introduce his son to Jordan after the game, and even asked him to sign some things.

This led to Jordan concluding that Vernon was simply crazy. Jordan was left astounded. Not only did he have to deal with serious aggression from Maxwell, he found himself signing things for his son just after the game.

Vernon Maxwell revealed he used to have sleepless nights before facing Michael Jordan

While Maxwell had his altercations with MJ during games, he had the utmost respect for the Bulls legend. Recently while responding to Ja Morant’s claims that he would have beaten Jordan 1-on-1, Maxwell had a simple response.

He claimed that while he loved Ja and his father, his take had been disrespectful for one of the GOATs. Maxwell claimed that MJ simply did not know how to stop coming at defenders.

He claimed that facing him led to sleepless nights and that defenders simply did not want the problems Jordan could constantly cause. Claiming to have tried things that nobody else did on MJ, Maxwell concluded that Jordan was simply unstoppable.

About the author

Rishabh Bhatnagar

Rishabh Bhatnagar

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Rishabh Bhatnagar is a Senior NBA Writer at The SportsRush. A lifelong NBA fan, Rishabh has been working as an NBA journalist since 2017. Before joining The SportsRush, he covered the NBA for another popular media platform. Rishabh is a bona fide NBA Historian specializing in uncovering stories from the league's past. He also likes covering trade rumors and player contracts. Rishabh has written almost 800 articles for The SportsRush and is always on the lookout for intriguing NBA stories. He is also a published novelist and an ardent Lakers fan.

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