Jason Maxiell will kick you in the neck

Chris Silva profiled Jason Maxiell in the Detroit Free Press, and it's definitely worth a read -- it's chock full of amusing anecdotes like this:

And that athletic ability on display more than 82 nights per season? Patricia Maxiell says it came naturally. She recalled when Jason was 9 or 10 and playing rec basketball. She told her son that he needed to be more aggressive if he wanted rebounds.

"So the next time down, he jumped so high, he kicked someone in their neck," she said with amusement. "I told him, 'You don't have to be that aggressive.' "

This is pretty cool: Silva collected more quotes than he could fit into the print edition of the article, so the Free Press posted those online, as well:

Maxiell’s mother, Patricia, said that while Jason was quiet as a kid, his AAU teammates gave him the nickname ‘grandpa’ for his leadership qualities. "He wouldn’t say a thing, but when he packed up his bag and left the gym, everyone would follow."

Patricia Maxiell doesn’t get as pumped as other Pistons’ fans when she watches her son play. "It scares me, honestly," she said. "Every time I see him go up for a rebound or a dunk, it scares me. I mean, every time I see him go up it frightens me. Every mom is afraid their baby is going to get hurt."

It's true: Maxiell is such a baaaad man even his mom is scared. It's not a surprise the Freep decided to feature Maxiell -- he's officially hit the big time among Pistons fans, as Natalie from Need4Sheed recently discovered:

I forgot to mention this a few days ago... When I was at the Palace Locker Room store one of the employees there told me that (when I had him pull down a Maxiell jersey for me) Maxiell's Jersey is the #1 seller at the Palace! Maxie has taken over Chauncey's top spot in sales. That to me says it all.

I can believe it, especially since the "Jason Maxiell Eats Babies" t-shirt is by far the best-selling item in the DBB Store. This seems as good a time as any to mention that the company that provides the DBB t-shirts is offering free shipping from today through Friday. So if you want to save five bucks, use the coupon code XMAS07XXL when checking out (or CADXMAS07XXL if you're in Canada).

Update: while we're telling Maxiell stories, this seems appropriate -- from last weekend on MLive.com (via PistonsNation and the DBB comments)

Jason Maxiell is not trying to make a fashion statement with his new closely cropped haircut. Maxiell decided to cut his hair shortly after learning that a close family member was beginning chemotherapy.

"It's something that I have no idea what they're going through," Maxiell said. "So I did this to show them my support."