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Did the end of The Last Dance leave you jonesing for more vintage NBA footage? Are you also starved for video of professional basketball players smacking the hell out of mouthy fans?
Well, have we got the YouTube clip for you!
The backstory: On Feb. 7, 1995, the Houston Rockets visited Portland for a game against the Trail Blazers at Memorial Coliseum. In the third quarter, with his team getting blown out, Houston shooting guard Vernon Maxwell started beefing with someone in the crowd.
After getting subbed out of the game, Maxwell—who already had a reputation as a hothead—casually walked into the stands and, with no one making much of an attempt to stop him, laid the smack down right across dude's face.
The victim, a thirtysomething Wilson High School graduate named Steve George, ended up suing Maxwell and the Rockets for a total of $4.5 million. The lawsuit was settled out of court, but Maxwell was suspended for 10 games and fined $20,000, and the incident cemented his legacy as a "problem player." (For what it's worth, Maxwell alleged George was yelling racist epithets at him, though news reports from the time could not corroborate the claim.)
The whole dustup was caught on camera, in gloriously clear audio—Maxwell can be heard shouting, "Kiss my ass, motherfucker!" right in front of a little kid sitting courtside—and makes the social media rounds every few years as a predecessor to the much more chaotic Malice in the Palace melee from 2004.
Less shared, though, is a segment on the incident allegedly from NBA Inside Stuff. (There's an awful lot of uncensored swearing for a show that aired on NBC at the time.) That footage isn't new, either—the clip has been on YouTube since 2016—but it achieved newfound virality this week when it was shared on Twitter by podcaster Adam Howes:
This NSFW video of Vernon Maxwell casually walking into the stands and smacking fire out of a heckling fan while Bill Gates watches and Jerry Seinfeld provides the 'Inside Stuff', is the oddest thing you'll see on the internet today. pic.twitter.com/GhOLqw3TSz
— Adam Howes (@Howsito) May 20, 2020
In a deeply '90s twist, Jerry Seinfeld was also at the game for some reason. (Bill Gates was there, too, seen rocking nervously in his seat. Gates regularly attended games as a guest of tech frenemy Paul Allen.) The comedian—who apparently spent a good deal of his glory years loitering around NBA locker rooms—offered up some commentary to the assembled media, while wearing a Blazers hat he apparently didn't have on during the first half of the game.
"I wanted to see which way the game was going," he says. "I've got 16 hats in my case here. Whoever's on top, I've got the hat."
As if that wasn't enough, the clip also contains bonus footage of late Blazers and Seattle Seahawks owner Allen shredding some "Voodoo Child" on electric guitar. (He's better than the Beatles, y'know—Quincy Jones said so.) That part of the video can be viewed here. We'd warn the language makes it "not safe for work," but we're guessing you're not at work at right now.
The NBA is currently considering relaunching its suspended season at Disney World, but there's really no reason to rush—just give us another 10-part documentary on Maxwell punching this guy and another 50 hours on Malice, and we'll all be set until October.