Some real characters have come through the NBA, but when it comes to storytelling, there’s nobody more entertaining than Vernon Maxwell. The two-time NBA champ played for eight different teams over the course of his 13-year career. Naturally, he is a treasure trove of stories, having seen and done it all.
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In an NBA career that began in 1988 and lasted till 2001, Mad Max played with some of the greats of the game: From David Robinson in San Antonio, to Hakeem Olajuwon in Houston, to Allen Iverson in Philadelphia, and Gary Payton in Seattle. That’s only a partial list, but it should give a sense of the wide range of personalities he came across.
Maxwell had two stints with the 76ers. The first time (1995-96) came immediately before Philly took Iverson with the first overall pick. He spent the next few years bouncing around — from the Spurs to the Hornets, Kings, and Sonics — until he landed back in the City of Brotherly Love in 2000.
Maxwell was on the Million Dollaz Worth of Game podcast this week, and he told the story of the time that Iverson (or Bubba Chuck, as his friends call him) emptied his pockets in a game of Boo-Ray during a road trip. Of course, Maxwell narrated it as only he could.
Iverson buttered Maxwell up by making the game seem easy when he explained it. However, when the veteran jumped in, he got a rude awakening.
“We were on the road for about a week,” Maxwell said. “I had about $50,000 in my little pocket and s***. You know them n***** there, Bubba Chuck and them, they got like motherf****** $300K, $400K… Then, if they lose that, they can get money to come right there to ’em in the hotel and s*** from a bank in wherever we at. S***, I wasn’t doing it like that.”
In most gambling games, the person with the smallest bankroll is at a serious disadvantage. That’s even more true when you’re not so familiar with the game being played. That combo spelled trouble for Maxwell.
“I jumped in that m*********** with my little money,” narrated Maxwell animatedly. “And before we got off that m*********** plane — and we flew from Orlando to m*********** Miami, that flight was short as hell — n****, I was broke.”
Every so often, a story will come out about how team chemistry is destroyed by gambling in the locker room or on a team flight. The most extreme example is when Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton of the Washington Wizards drew guns on each other over a gambling debt back in 2009.
When this kind of money is being thrown around, though, it’s surprising that things like that don’t happen more often. Anybody who has gambled a vast sum and lost knows the pit in your stomach that hits afterwards. Maxwell said he was side-eyeing everyone on the team after dropping his $50k. But luckily for him, Iverson is a stand-up guy and made things right.
“Bubba Chuck shot that s*** right back to me,” Maxwell said, confirming that AI returned the money. “‘G****** n****, that’s what you was up there acting like that for, huh? Let me get that s*** back to you.'”
The moral of the story? Gambling among teammates can sometimes be a problem, but not when you have The Answer.
