Former player over the years have admitted to mishandling their money due to the NBA fame. Apart from this, another key issue that emerged was the players being scammed by people closer to their inner circle. One such case was of Rockets legend Vernon Maxwell, who called out another former NBA player for not repaying the debt. Similarly, now we have All the Smoke podcast co-host, Stephen Jackson, who did the same, as he put everybody on notice when it comes to financial mismanagement.

Not only did the former Warriors star call out the people responsible for the alleged scam. “It was your fault, too. You don’t do that. And then you don’t call his other teammates and ask them for money just because they played together. You hung with him a couple of times.” This was a fiery Instagram rant by the former champion, and he was not done. Instead of asking former teammates for money, Jackson suggested “hustle” methods.

“What you need to be doing is finding a way to hustle to get you and your partner back. That was taking care of you his whole NBA career. You don’t talk about him, and you don’t go to his teammates trying to make yourself look bad by demeaning him.” So, Stephen Jackson wants former players struggling from financial crunch shouldn’t be asking teammates for money to get out of the situation. A similar circumstance that Vernon Maxwell faced, and aired it out months ago.

Mad Max claims that Vincent Askew approached him “on his knees” for financial help, citing personal reasons. Without asking further questions, whether Askew made a bad investment, faced legal troubles, or urgently needed cash, the Rockets legend helped out. But that decision to help $10k backfired.

Vernon Maxwell’s method to claim his money back was futile

The 59-year-old understood the ups and downs of life after basketball and was willing to look out for a fellow hooper in need. After lending the money, the debt turned from weeks turned into months, and Maxwell still hadn’t seen a dime of the $10K Askew owed him. “That m———– then changed the number. They were supposed to get my money transferred over to the bank. He said he changed the number,” said the Rockets legend.

Askew ignored Maxwell’s calls and left his text messages on read. Damn, Askew really pulled a “new phone who dis?” on Maxwell. In the end, Mad Max decided to negotiate, suggesting he would be fine with just $5,000. This was when Vernon Maxwell aired his feelings to Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson on the financial debacle he faced from the entire $10k issue.

Matt Barnes even joked about his reaction to the entire viral clip from Mad Max. “I saw, I don’t know how many months ago, it made me spit my drink out, and send it to my group chat when you went off on Vincent Askew. About the m———– owing you some money.” So, maybe that’s why Jackson is not in support of people asking for money. Instead, he suggests doing odd jobs to start with and get the finances in check.