{"id":1509420,"date":"2022-05-17T10:17:31","date_gmt":"2022-05-17T14:17:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/?p=1509420"},"modified":"2023-05-11T17:37:48","modified_gmt":"2023-05-11T21:37:48","slug":"kenny-smith-says-vernon-maxwell-only-nba-player-irritated-michael-jordan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/kenny-smith-says-vernon-maxwell-only-nba-player-irritated-michael-jordan\/","title":{"rendered":"Kenny Smith Says Vernon Maxwell Was the Only NBA Player Who ‘Irritated' Michael Jordan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Generally speaking, Michael Jordan<\/a> was a pretty cool customer on the basketball court. It's not as if the five-time NBA MVP never mixed it up with an opponent, but it took quite a bit to get His Airness truly riled up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jordan himself was one of the great trash talkers of all time, but there were indeed plenty of other good ones during his era. One of them was two-time NBA champion Vernon Maxwell, who was best known for his six seasons alongside Hakeem Olajuwon<\/a> with the Houston Rockets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite overpowering essentially every other team in the 1990s, the Chicago Bulls<\/a> consistently struggled to beat the Rockets. In fact, in the six matchups between the two squads during the three seasons in which Jordan & Co. won their first three titles, Houston won five of them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And if you're wondering, yes, Michael Jordan played in all six games. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another member of those Rockets teams was Kenny Smith, who also teamed with Jordan for one year at North Carolina. And “The Jet” says Maxwell was the only player he ever saw who could truly get under MJ's skin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vernon Maxwell was the only NBA player who ‘irritated' Michael Jordan, according to Kenny Smith<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Michael Jordan during an NBA All-Star Game | Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On an episode of NBA TV's Open Court<\/em>, Smith opened up about Maxwell and recalled one of those old matchups between the Rockets and Bulls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“Playing with Vernon Maxwell was great. I thought that, overall, his personality was infectious on the court and his ‘Mad Max' persona. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“He was the only guy I saw that irritated Michael [Jordan] ever in his career. Vernon told him twice. He's like, ‘If you score again, the way you're scoring, I'm gonna fight you.' And I said, ‘What do you mean?' And he said, ‘He's disrespecting me. He's scoring on me too easy.'<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“So Michael scored again and he actually swung on him.”<\/p>\nKenny Smith on Michael Jordan vs. Vernon Maxwell<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Maxwell himself looked back on his battles with Jordan around the time The Last Dance<\/em> was released and still seems to have enjoyed them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I loved going up against Mike. He was the best. There is no disputing that. But unlike most people who went up against him I wasn\u2019t going allow myself to be intimidated. He might\u2019ve been the best but he was going to have to prove it each and every time we faced off. #TheLastDance<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/2deYxuMzY1<\/a><\/p>— Vernon Maxwell (@VernonMaxwell11) April 22, 2020<\/a><\/blockquote>