It’s no secret that locker room fights and scuffles happen all the time in sports and most usually never make it to the headlines, but two-time NBA champion Vernon Maxwell revealed shocking news that he nearly stabbed Hall of Famer Hakeem Olajuwon during a locker room scuffle.
During an appearance on Gilbert Arenas’ “No Chill” podcast, Maxwell said the altercation took place at halftime during a game against the Seattle Supersonics. Maxwell was complaining about his limited role in the game while heading to the locker room, and Olajuwon apparently didn’t like that.
According to Maxwell, Olajuwon came from behind him and “smacked the s— outta me” in the locker room. Maxwell responded by throwing a chair at Olajuwon, further escalating the situation.
“That motherf—– hit me so hard, man, knocked me out the chair,” Maxwell said. “I jumped up, grabbed my chair and throwed it at the motherf—–, bust the glass in the locker room.”
After throwing the chair, Maxwell grabbed a piece of broken glass that he said he intended to use as a weapon against Olajuwan.
“I was gonna chase Dream and stab the s— outta him,” Maxwell said.
However, Maxwell never got the chance because police rushed into the room with guns drawn – much to Maxwell’s surprise.
“I was like ‘Damn, they got the guns on me at a professional halftime,'” Maxwell recalled. “‘At a professional game'”
It’s a wild story, but the incident doesn’t seem to have hurt the relationship between Maxwell and Olajuwon. Maxwell called Olajuwon a “great teammate” and the pair won back-to-back NBA Championships with the Houston Rockets in 1994 and 1995.
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