Vernon Maxwell to Michael Jordan: ‘Don’t put your hands on me!’

Former Rockets guard Vernon Maxwell tells the story of when he and Bulls star Michael Jordan went “cheek to cheek” in the early 1990s.

Nicknamed “Mad Max,” former Houston Rockets guard Vernon Maxwell was best known on the basketball court for his fiery demeanor.

As one might expect, that intensity was especially noticeable when matched up with arguably the NBA’s greatest player ever.

With Michael Jordan and the 1990s Chicago Bulls back in the spotlight courtesy of ESPN’s new “The Last Dance” documentary, Maxwell shared a story with Fox 26 Houston’s Mark Berman about when he and Jordan came “cheek to cheek” in an altercation in the early 1990s. It didn’t lead to blows, but Maxwell clearly let Jordan know how he felt.

With a smile, here’s how Maxwell recalls it in 2020:

We were in Houston, and he spun on me and went baseline. All I saw was that Jumpman logo on the bottom of his shoes when he was dunking.

I just took off running back down the floor. And he ran up behind me and hit me on my butt. That’s when I was like ‘Man, don’t put your damn hands on me!’

You’re going to embarrass me like that? Don’t come up and touch me. That’s when we got to cheek to cheek. I was just telling him, ‘Don’t disrespect me. You already dunked on me and disrespected me enough. Don’t come and hit me on my ass.’

With Maxwell playing a key role as Houston’s starting shooting guard, the Rockets went 5-1 against the Bulls in Chicago’s first three championship seasons of 1990-91, 1991-92, and 1992-93. Generally, Maxwell was the Rocket tasked with guarding Jordan, and he fared reasonably well.

On offense, Maxwell averaged 18.3 points on 51.3% shooting versus the Bulls — far superior to his 40.8% overall shooting clip and 16.1 points per game average for those seasons as a whole.

Meanwhile, Jordan averaged 29.2 points per game on 48.0% shooting against the Rockets — down slightly from his usual averages of 31.4 points per game on 51.7% shooting in those years.

Maxwell then played a central role in Houston’s first championship run in the 1993-94 campaign. While Jordan was temporarily retired during that season and playing Minor League Baseball, Maxwell and other members of the 1990s Rockets frequently point to their success against Jordan’s Bulls in the three previous seasons as a reason not to assume that Houston’s 1994 title was largely due to his absence.

By the time Jordan next faced the Rockets in the 1995-96 NBA season, Maxwell had moved on from Houston to Philadelphia. Thus, those battles from 1991 through 1993 are the last evidence we have of what a potential playoff showdown between the two guards might have looked like.

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