Vernon Maxwell Once Tried To Hit Gary Payton With Dumbbell During Their Legendary Fight

Zachary Draves | Jul 21, 2024

Nov 19, 2016; Houston, TX, USA; Former Houston Rockets Vernon Maxwell waves to the fans before the start of the fourth quarter of the game between the Rockets vs Utah Jazz at Toyota Center. Rockets won 111-102. Mandatory Credit: Thomas B. Shea-USA TODAY Sports / Thomas B. Shea-USA TODAY Sports

In the 1990s, Vernon Maxwell was one of the NBA's most fiercest enforcers.

Nicknamed "Mad Max" for his temper, he put fear in many of his competitors, He even once punched a fan for hurling racist slurs during a game.

Now, he is coming clean about what really went down between him and Hall of Famer Gary Payton.

In an appearance on Gilbert Arenas's podcast, Maxwell went into great detail about his legendary fight with "The Glove" when they were teammates on the Seattle Supersonics during the 1999-00 season.

It occured during a team practice.

In a scrimmage, Payton was putting a pummeling on rookie Shammgod Williams, who Maxwell was mentoring at the time.

Payton proceeded to hit Williams in the face, resulting in him leaving the court bleeding.

Maxwell was seething with rage. The next time they went down the floor, Payton tripped Maxwell, leading to a brawl at mid court with the Sonics head coach Paul Westphal.

Teammate Chuck Person stepped in to break them up.

They proceeded to take it to the locker room where they went at it again. Horace Grant tried to intervene before was struck in the shoulder by a five-pound weight Maxwell was carrying in his hand.

Grant was sidelined for two weeks.

It is clear that Maxwell is proud of himself. Just another crazy story of Maxwell living up to his nickname.

Zachary Draves is a contributor to Back In the Day NBA. He can be reached at zdraves1013@gmail.com and on Instagram @zdraves0633.

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