Former NBA player Vernon Maxwell raised eyebrows when he claimed he would rather play against Michael Jordan than guard the late great Drazen Petrovic, during an appearance on All Ball TV . Maxwell was asked about that comment on Gil's Arena recently and he explained what made guarding Petrovic so difficult.
"I used to tell Rudy (Tomjanovich) all the time... I told Rudy T, I said, 'Man, treat that motherf***** like you treat Mike, now. Motherf*****, when Mike come out of the game, motherf***** you bring me out of the game. When Mike come back up to that goddamn middle of the table, you let me meet this motherf***** up there. Feed him like that. Don't let none of these motherf****** get in there and get this b**** going.'"
"Once this motherf***** get going, and you have to run off, they running off three, four screens over there in New Jersey with the Nets," Maxwell continued. "They was running that motherf*****, that motherf***** running all night, he catch that b**** at mid-air and turn this way and square his s*** up, and I'll be like, 'Goddamn how this motherf*****?' Then when he get it going, there ain't no cutting his water off... Yes, I would rather guard Mike than guard that motherf*****."
There really was no stopping Petrovic when he got going. He was an excellent shooter and could go toe-to-toe with the best scorers in the league on his day.
Petrovic gave Maxwell plenty of headaches in their last four meetings, in particular. He scored 128 points combined in them (32 PPG), including a 44-point outburst in a game on Jan. 24, 1993. It comes as no surprise then, that Maxwell has so much respect for the Croatian.
Petrovic had many more impressive outings in that 1992-93 season, his best in the NBA. He averaged 22.3 points, 2.7 rebounds, 3.5 assists, and 1.3 steals per game in that campaign for the New Jersey Nets and shot 51.8% from the field and 44.9% from beyond the arc.
Petrovic's good play was rewarded with a spot on the All-NBA Third Team and it looked like he had a shot at becoming a superstar in the league in the coming years. Tragically, though, he passed away the following offseason in a car accident.
It was a big loss not just to the NBA but to the basketball world as well. Petrovic was a player well ahead of his time and who knows what he would have gone on to achieve had his life not been cut short on June 7, 1993. He at least lives on in the hearts and minds of those who had the pleasure of sharing the court with him.
Vernon Maxwell Thinks The Rockets Would Have Beaten The Bulls If They Had Met In The NBA Finals
Maxwell won two titles with the Houston Rockets in 1994 and 1995, but it's often said that they only won because Jordan had retired for the first time then. Unsurprisingly, Vernon doesn't agree with that. Maxwell said the Rockets would have easily beaten Jordan and the Bulls if they met in the Finals.
"Hey, man we used to beat them all the time man. I know things are different during the playoffs. But I just feel like we had that big a** African (Hakeem Olajuwon) back there and Bill Cartwright and Will Perdue, they wasn't gonna be able to do it."
"We just look at the numbers man. I mean the numbers don't lie, man, we was beating the s*** outta them boys. I mean we wasn't beating them by 5, we were beating them up by 15, 17, 16, 13, we was beating them. I mean over like an 8-year span, 7-year span we was 9-1 (against them). I mean come on man."
Jordan did have a losing record against Olajuwon in his career (10-13) and the Bulls did go 1-5 against the Rockets during their first three-peat. That doesn't necessarily mean they would have beaten them in the Finals, but you get why Maxwell is so confident. It is a pity that we never got to see those teams square off on the big stage.
Related: Vernon Maxwell Recalls Story On How He Knocked Out Gary Payton In A Scrimmage
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