“Vernon Maxwell could have handled Black Jesus,” Robert Horry said. Throughout the ’80s and ’90s, the league saw a parade of so-called “MJ-stoppers,” but most got cooked by His Airness, except for a select few, like Gary Payton and Vernon “Mad Max” Maxwell . Jordan respected Maxwell’s chaos—the trash talk, the no-back-down attitude, and the physical altercations. They went at it like it was personal. So when the Rockets won it all in 1995, Maxwell wasn’t handing out flowers—not to the Bulls, and definitely not to Michael Jordan, who hadn’t played a full season.

And the beef wasn’t just talk—Maxwell backed it up on the court. With him holding it down as Houston’s starting shooting guard, the Rockets actually had the Bulls’ number during Chicago’s first three-peat run. According to

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