For Vernon Maxwell, A Legacy Tarnished

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For Vernon Maxwell, A Legacy Tarnished

By KEVIN BROCKWAY
New York Times Regional Newspapers

Where do you begin? Maybe in Sugar Hill, where a young boy from a government housing project would dribble a basketball around the block in the middle of the night, just to get a feel for it.

Or in the basement of the Alachua County Jail, where the unrecognized all-time leading scorer in University of Florida basketball history, who went on to NBA millions and indulged in the vices that came with it, stood in shackles wearing an orange jumpsuit, telling a judge he was broke.

Or in a modest northwest Gainesville home, where a single mother is raising a son his father never cared enough to know.

All three weave into the life of Vernon Maxwell.

Maxwell, 38, is arguably Gainesville's best pure athlete, as well as its most tarnished. Last month, he spent five days in an Alachua County Jail cell on charges of failure to pay more than $150,000 in child support.

Cobb County, Ga., officials extradited Maxwell to Gainesville after he was arrested on kidnapping and aggravated assault charges. According to police records, Maxwell abducted female acquaintance Belinda Beine and locked her in her Marietta home. When Beine tried to escape, Maxwell beat her. At one point, Maxwell struck her with a TV tray, causing a bruise on her back. Maxwell gave a false name -- "Kenneth Shaw" -- to the arresting officer.

The arrest continued a string of antisocial, violent behavior that has stretched into Maxwell's post-NBA career.

Maxwell did not agree to numerous interview requests from The Gainesville Sun. His lawyer, Steven Turnage, contended that Maxwell no longer has the ability to pay the $5,043 monthly sum to Myra Jenkins, the mother of their 15-year-old son. Jenkins had the child support raised from $2,700 a month in August 2000, a year after Maxwell signed a three-year, $5 million contract with the Seattle SuperSonics.

"Vernon is hopeful to get the monthly sum of his child support reduced," Turnage said. "He wants to be able to get on with his life in a positive manner."

The case is now in the hands of the State Attorney's Office, which can pursue felony charges under a new federal child support law. The maximum sentence is five years in prison. A case management hearing is scheduled for early June.

State child support records show Maxwell has not paid support to Jenkins since May 2001.

"The facts of the case are pretty clear-cut," State Attorney Bill Cervone said. "Vernon has not lived up to his responsibilities. But we believe this is something that will probably be settled out of court."

In testimony at his bail reduction hearing, Maxwell said that his ex-wife, Rasharita Rochell Maxwell, whom he divorced four years ago, sold his house and cleared out his bank accounts.

"I had to take care of my wife and four kids," said Maxwell, referring to the four children he had with his wife. Maxwell was able to get a cash bail reduced from $108,000 to $20,000. "That was the first thing I had to worry about. I didn't have enough money to take care of everyone else."

Jenkins, an intensive care nurse at Shands hospital systems, has heard the excuses before. Maxwell's previous child support payment history was spotty at best. In 1997, Maxwell feigned injuries in order to get out of playing games in Orlando and Miami because warrants were issued for failure to pay support. He settled after coming up with more than $51,000 in back pay.

"He's just a poor excuse for a human being," Jenkins said. "He's a poor excuse for a man. No man should run from their responsibilities."

Jenkins insisted this is not about her but about her son, a son whom Maxwell has chosen to neglect.

"If he were a garbage man," Jenkins said, "I'd be fighting for this the same way."

A FORGOTTEN SON

Dominique Maxwell is looking more like a man -- and his dad -- every day. You can see Vernon in his face. He is a 6-foot-6 sophomore at Buchholz High School, but he does not play on the basketball team. Coaches have tried to talk him into going out for the team. Jenkins, a former basketball player at Eastside High School, has encouraged him.

Maybe, Dominique says, he will try out next year. He is a bit husky but carries no more weight than what a few weeks of intense practice couldn't shed.

"When he found out what his father did, he said he wanted in no way to be like him," Jenkins said. "It's sad because when you look at all the other father-son athlete relationships -- Ken Griffey and Ken Griffey Jr., Kobe Bryant and his dad -- it could have been that way."

Instead, it was vastly different.

The only way Dominique got to know his father was through the television. Sometimes Jenkins would send cards addressed from Maxwell to make her son think Maxwell was thinking about him. When Maxwell was in a jail cell in Harris County, Texas, serving a 90-day sentence for a mar1juana possession charge in 1995, Dominique wrote his father a letter. Typed out on a computer, Dominique asked when he would be able to meet him.

Maxwell tried to call collect, but Jenkins was unable to get to the phone in time. Subsequent calls from Jenkins never got through.

There was another time Maxwell reached out to Dominique. This time, according to Jenkins, there were ulterior motives. It was in the summer before third grade. Maxwell took Dominique and his son from his marriage, Vernon Jr., to their house in Gainesville. There was a stop-off at Shands on the way, where Dominique was taken for a blood test.

Maxwell gave Dominique $40 to keep quiet. Dominique told his mom anyway.

A record from Memorial Blood Centers of Minnesota, dated Nov. 14, 1996, confirmed what Jenkins already knew. Dominique was Maxwell's son.

"That was the last straw," Jenkins said. "After that, I wouldn't agree to any unsupervised visits."

FINANCIAL RESHUFFLING

Maxwell filed for bankruptcy on Sept. 25, 1998. In testimony, Maxwell said his former accountant from Houston, Tracy DeCosta, swindled him out of more than $500,000 and ran off to Mexico. He filed for bankruptcy a day before a court ruled that he pay $592,000 to Shelia Rias, a woman who claimed Maxwell knowingly infected her with herpes.

By then, Maxwell's troubled 10-year marriage was on the rocks. In December 1999, Rasharita filed for divorce from her husband. Vernon did not hire a lawyer during the proceedings. In the settlement, Vernon turned over the title of his Alpharetta, Ga., house (purchased at $348,000) to his agent, Dwight Manley. Manley then transferred title of the house to Rasharita.

In the settlement, Rasharita also received her husband's Porsche, Range Rover and access to his Bank of America checking account.

In the summer of 2000, the Sonics traded Maxwell to the Knicks. The Knicks released Maxwell before the start of the 2000-01 season. Manley confirmed that the rest of Maxwell's $5 million contract was paid but did not know if the Knicks invoked a buyout clause in his contract or if he remained on the Knicks' payroll through 2001-02.

The Knicks paid out close to $19 million in salaries for players not on the 12-man roster during the 2001-02 season. Frank Murphy, Knicks senior vice president of business affairs, would not reveal whether Maxwell was on the Knicks' 2001-02 payroll.

Another salary record showed that the Philadelphia 76ers paid Maxwell $548,000 of a one-year, $1 million contract. It was his last active season. He finished 2000-01 with the Dallas Mavericks, earning $232,000 of the prorated $1 million deal.

Unable to make the Mavericks before the start of the 2001-02 season, Maxwell returned to his family in Alpharetta. Overtures came from teams overseas, but Manley said Maxwell could not obtain a visa because of his criminal record.

After his playing days ended, Maxwell could not find a way to control the intense anger that fueled him throughout his NBA career.

In October 2002, police arrested Maxwell at his Alpharetta home. He was charged with assault and possession of mar1juana after a fight with Vernon Jr. over the amount of push-ups that Vernon Jr. was doing. Rasharita filed for a restraining order and forced Vernon out of the house.

It was then, Vernon said, that Rasharita sold the house and cleared out his bank accounts.

Maxwell violated terms of the restraining order in January 2003, according to police records. Upset over Vernon Jr.'s academic performance, Maxwell confronted his ex-wife in the private school parking lot where Vernon Jr. attended.

According to police records, Maxwell attempted to snatch the keys of the Range Rover he had turned over to her in the divorce settlement.

Maxwell told his ex-wife that he was going to sell the vehicle and that she should appreciate it because he was financially supporting her.

PLAYING BALL

For all his legal transgressions, there is a side to Maxwell that is humble and charismatic. Former NBA coach John Lucas took Maxwell under his wing in both San Antonio and Philadelphia.

Maxwell never missed a child support payment for Dominique during that time. An official with the Sacramento Kings described Maxwell as both "funny" and "a good teammate" during his 1998-99 season there.

Maxwell's basketball odyssey began at Buchholz, where he didn't even make the varsity team until his junior year. Rick Swain coached Maxwell in both football and basketball at Buchholz.

"We recognized midway through his sophomore year that he was going to be special," said Swain, now head football coach at Boca Raton High School. "Obviously, his athleticism and his will to win is what carried us. He hated losing more than anything."

Swain described Maxwell as a selfless player. Often, Maxwell would take on the defensive assignment of guarding the other team's best player, even if there was a size mismatch.

"He had a temper, but most of the good players do," Swain said. "He learned to control it. He had to lead them and he didn't always demonstrate the greatest leadership, but when you needed him most, he was there."

Former Florida assistant basketball coach Monte Towe helped recruit Maxwell to UF. Maxwell had made an oral commitment to North Carolina State (the late Jim Valvano stayed at Swain's house during the recruiting visit). But Maxwell reneged on the commitment after Florida players took him out for two nights on the town before signing day.

Towe, now the head coach at the University of New Orleans, knew that Florida was bringing in a star.

"Basketball was his first love," Towe said. "When kids at the time chose football, he chose basketball, and it really helped us."

At Florida, the 6-foot-4 Maxwell blossomed into a scorer, versatile enough to play both guard positions. He was the central figure in the Norm Sloan-coached teams that made the first NCAA Tournament appearances in school history in the late 1980s, and he developed a knack for hitting big shots in big games. His last-second shot lifted Florida over St. John's in the first round of the 1988 NCAA Tournament.

His career at Florida, though, ended in disgrace. Allegations surfaced that Maxwell used cocaine before games and that the Florida coaching staff knew about it. The resulting NCAA violations made Maxwell a pariah.

Statistics from his final two years, which would have put him ahead of all-time UF leading scorer Ronnie Williams, were stripped.

Swain thought Maxwell was pressured into admitting the violations in order to protect his NBA Draft status.

"The basketball program had a lot of problems at the time, and I believe Vernon was unfairly made the scapegoat," Swain said.

Regardless, Maxwell moved on to the NBA. Denver picked him in the second round of the 1988 NBA Draft, and traded his rights to the San Antonio Spurs.

Maxwell's undoing in the NBA was his temper. There were also substance abuse issues.

His crowning achievement as an NBA player came in 1994. Starting with Kenny Smith in the backcourt for the Houston Rockets, Maxwell finished with 21 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds in Game 7 of the NBA Finals, helping lead the Rockets to their first NBA championship.

The next year, the Rockets traded for Clyde Drexler. Maxwell had already earned the nickname "Mad Max" for an altercation in which he went into the stands in Portland and fought with a heckling fan. The NBA suspended Maxwell 10 games.

In 1995, Maxwell was sentenced to 90 days in jail for a mar1juana possession charge. There also was a report of a fight with teammate Carl Herrera in which Maxwell hit Herrera with a dumbbell and went out to the car to get his gun. The Rockets won another title in 1995, but Maxwell had clearly worn out his welcome.

From Houston, Maxwell became an NBA nomad, bouncing to six different teams in five years. As his skills diminished, Maxwell often had trouble accepting a reduced role.

"I liked to play ball," he said. "I wasn't going to be happy unless I played."

THE ROAD AHEAD

Alachua County authorities released Maxwell on $20,000 bail on April 20. He is now living with his mother in a northwest Gainesville home that prosecutors contend he purchased.

Property records list his mother, Grace, as a tenant. In testimony, Maxwell said his mother has made all payments on the home. Maxwell made the down payment for his mother shortly after his NBA career began.

Vernon's brother, Greg Maxwell, is paying him $250 a week to work for his janitorial company. His NBA pension will kick in at 45.

In a sign of contrition, Maxwell told the court, "I think it's a blessing because I'm ready to hit this head-on and get on with my life. I'm tired of running."

Why did an athletic career that began with such promise spiral out of control? Money? Drugs?

"I don't know if there are any substance abuse issues," Manley said. "The transition from the NBA to civilian life is difficult for a lot of athletes. Vernon was always high strung, which made him a valuable and useful guy in the NBA world. In ordinary life, it's something that sometimes gets to you."

Towe said he would do anything within his means to help Maxwell if he approached him. The two last talked two years ago at a celebrity golf tournament.

"As far as some of these recent unfortunate events, it doesn't change my opinion of Vernon," Towe said.

Said Swain: "I wasn't there to live his experience. He had a lot of choices to make, and he made some bad choices. But I just know that we shared a time in life when he was excited to be playing basketball. When I think of Vernon, those are the times I will choose to remember."

Jenkins and Maxwell began dating in high school. Jenkins recalled a time when the two of them would watch NBA games on TV. Maxwell would point to the players on screen and say he was going to be one of them some day.

"He was a great basketball player," Jenkins said. "You can't take that away from him. But that doesn't make him a great person. That doesn't make him a great father."

Kevin Brockway writes for The Gainesville Sun.