“Ruben Is a Bully” – Zach Randolph Opens Up on Being Slammed by Portland Vet in One of the Worst NBA Fights Ever

It was the 1996–97 season when Portland’s “Jail Blazers“ moniker was used for the first time. And the players who came after infamously lived up to the name. In his rookie season, Zach Randolph got in some trouble with the law but also got one over his teammate by hitting his jaw. However, being new to the locker, he unknowingly got himself into a sticky situation.

Zach Randolph details the “Slam heard around the world” involving Blazers teammate Ruben “Kobe Stopper” Patterson. On Podcast P with Paul George, the Indiana native shared the story. Patterson got done lifting weights and came to the locker room, saying, “Can’t nobody slam me.” Randolph thought of accepting the challenge since he had already been fooling around with his friends as kids. And the decision would lead to a series of events that he could joke about now but not back then.

“I stood up, try to grab him, we lock up, he slammed– he throwing me all in the lockers. Boom! Boom! I’m trying to, I’m 19, I ain’t going. So I’m trying to, man, it’s a difference, grown man strength I found out then it’s different,” he added. The thud was so loud that the teammates called it the “Slam heard around the world.” But the two of them did not stop and it led to serious injury. Due to this, he calls Ruben a bully.

Patterson wasn’t going to leave Randolph until he slammed him to the mat. Z-Bo said that it was a WWE-kind of move when he slammed into a concrete floor covered by an inch of carpet. It resulted in him hurting his tailbone and needing to be carried out of the locker room. Thus missing practice but came back with a vengeance.

Zach Randolph left his mark

Ruben Patterson then got into another argument with one of his teammates, who was in his rookie year. This time it was Qyntel Woods, and Z-Bo and Woods were close friends. During the argument, Woods and Patterson were face-to-face and nobody anticipated the next move.

Out of nowhere, Randolph appeared and punched Patterson so hard that it led to a broken left eye socket. Patterson wasn’t going to take that hit quietly and was about to go Hulk mode, according to Wallace. “I was never more scared in the NBA at this time,” Wallace said on The Gil’s Arena in 2023. “And I’ve seen some s***, been through some s***, he turned into the Incredible Hulk. Ruben Patterson turned into the Incredible Hulk. It took like nine people to stop him from getting at Zach.”

Zach Randolph was fined $100,000 for provocation. The team had many personalities before Zach Randolph, who established Portland’s “Jail Blazers.” But that is not the time any of the stakeholders would want any team to go back to. Stay tuned for more such updates, and to follow what Shaq’s ex-agent, Leonard Armato, had to say about the marketing genius, watch this video.