Former Houston Rocket Vernon Maxwell is opening up about a wild confrontation he had with Hakeem Olajuwon during halftime of a game back in the day ... saying police drew guns on him after he tried to stab "The Dream" during the heated altercation.
The 2x-NBA champ made the startling revelation on Gilbert Arenas' podcast, "No Chill With Gilbert Arenas" ... where he recalled his encounter with the Hall of Famer which nearly turned fatal.
Maxwell says the crazy incident started as he and Olajuwon walked back to the locker room at halftime. Vernon was pissed his teammates weren't feeding him the ball, compromising his numbers for the game.
Vernon and Hakeem exchanged words in the tunnel en route back to the locker room ... and once there, Maxwell says Olajuwon slapped him in his face.
"I said, 'God damn, this motherf***er slapped the s**t out of me,'" Maxwell said. "That motherf***er hit me so hard, man, [he] knocked me out the chair."
"I jumped up, grabbed my chair, and throwed it at [that] motherf***er, bust the glass in the locker room. Everybody running out. Police come in with the guns drawn, like 'what the hell goin' on in here?'"
"Damn, they got the guns on me at a professional halftime. At a professional game," he continued.
Maxwell -- who played 6 seasons on the Rockets with Olajuwon -- says had the police not barged in to break up the mayhem, he was going to "chase Dream and stab the s**t out of him."
Luckily, cooler heads prevailed, and Vernon and Hakeem went on to maintain a civil relationship ... and after becoming Muslim, Dream even talked to VM about converting religions.
"After that, [Hakeem] became Muslim. He was so quiet. So humble. So, [he] wanted me to become Muslim. I couldn't do it. But, he was a great teammate after that."