If you ask the league’s best shooting guards who could truly guard Michael Jordan, only a select few would be confident in their chances. 2× NBA champion Vernon Maxwell would surely be among them. Yet, despite his prowess, it wasn’t Jordan who haunted Maxwell’s dreams. Instead, another name struck fear into his heart. “I would rather guard Mike than guard that motherf****,” Maxwell once said, referring to a player who, in his eyes, was even more daunting than His Airness himself. But who was this formidable opponent?

In a recent episode of the Club 520 Podcast, Maxwell took a nostalgic trip back to his playing days, and the name Drazen Petrovic quickly surfaced. “That motherf***** was something else, man,” Maxwell recalled with an air of reverence. He even issued an ultimatum to HC Rudy Tomjanovich, who won 2 championships as coach, when tasked with covering Petrovic. Maxwell demanded, “Hey Rudy, treat this motherf**** like you treat Mike.”

Then Maxwell described his strategy for guarding Petrovic, which was both humorous and revealing. “When he comes out of the game, bring my a** out the game. When he comes to the goddamn table, let me meet him at the table. I don’t want nobody guarding this motherf**** ’cause this *** * can get going real quick, and it’s going to be hard to cut this motherf**’s water off.”

Even modern-day greats like 20× NBA All-Star LeBron James took note of the ex-Portland Trail Blazers star’s talent. During the 2013 All-Star Weekend, LeBron remarked, “All-time? Best international player of all time? Dirk (Nowitzki) or Petrovic. His ability to shoot the ball and he was very athletic. He wasn’t afraid of nothing…He wasn’t afraid of the moment, he wasn’t afraid of anything, and you know he was awesome.”

Coming back to Maxwell, he shared an incident on the podcast when his coach didn’t heed his advice to guard Petrović closely. One of his teammates was even too scared to face Petrović, and by the time Maxwell was brought in, it was already too late. “Try to cut off the water, boy, I couldn’t do it…that’s the worst cover in the world, trying (to guard) Petrović, man.”

Vernon Maxwell reflects on the challenges of guarding Drazen Petrovic

During a recent appearance on All Ball TV, Vernon Maxwell took a deep dive into what made guarding Drazen Petrovic such a nightmare. He recalled how he would frequently tell his coach, Rudy Tomjanovich, to treat him like Michael Jordan.

Petrovic had a way of making even the toughest defenders look helpless, and the Houston guard wasn’t spared. In their last 4 meetings alone, Petrovic dropped a staggering 128 points, averaging 32 points per game. Among these was a jaw-dropping 44-point performance on January 24, 1993. It’s no wonder Maxwell held such profound respect for the Croatian sharpshooter.

Maxwell went on to describe the frustration of trying to keep up with Petrovic. “Once this motherf***** gets going, and you have to run off three, four screens over there in New Jersey with the Nets, you start thinking..there ain’t no cutting his water off,” he said. It was this relentlessness that made Maxwell declare, “Yes, I would rather guard Mike than guard that motherf****.”

“Stay tuned for more such updates and join us for the exciting second episode of the “Dual Threat Show” as our host BG12 sits down with Georgia Bulldogs star and Mountain West All-Freshman Team Selection, Asia Avinger.”