Hakeem Olajuwon is one of the greatest players and centers of all time, and he was by most accounts a top-tier superstar who was humble and loved to play the game of basketball.
However, according to Vernon Maxwell, Hakeem Olajuwon was at one point tough to deal with, to the point where Maxwell almost stabbed him in a locker room fight. There is no doubt that this is a crazy story to hear.
Quiet humble guy, didn’t say a lot, wasn’t in the spotlight like that… I mean totally great person when he became Muslim.
He walked up on me in Seattle… got a long a** walk back to the locker room from the floor at halftime. I’m mad as hell I probably have about 4-5 points… he walking behind me.
I’m like “Man this some bulls*it… can’t get the goddamn rock… you pass that b*tch kick it up, let me go and attack”
I’m spitting and Dream says “Stop that s*it man. Be a professional man”
They had me by him all the time, and he came in the locker room… This MF slapped the sh*t out of me… hit me so hard knocked me out the chair. I jumped up, I grabbed my chair, busted glass all over the damn locker room… police come with guns drawn… They got the guns on me at a professional halftime… I broke the glass and I picked up a big piece of glass, and I was going to chase Dream and stab the shit out of him… That’s how it was before (he became Muslim).
This situation is absolutely not something that you’ll see in the NBA today, and most people wouldn’t have even guessed that Hakeem Olajuwon was ever close to being stabbed until this revelation by Vernon Maxwell.
Vernon Maxwell is well-known for having an interesting social media presence and character, most notably beefing with Utah Jazz fans. Perhaps we’ll hear more stories like this from him in the future, and it’s likely that Vernon Maxwell has a lot to tell.
