“Yo, let’s go! We got a gun, we good” – J-Rich shares a wild story about his Warriors teammate keeping the Trail Blazers’ bus from leaving the arena originally appeared on Basketball Network.
Jason Richardson played 13 seasons in the NBA, earning a reputation as an athletic wingman who could get buckets. With nearly a thousand games under his belt, the 6’6″ wingman from Saginaw, Michigan, has undoubtedly amassed a treasure trove of stories. Among them lies one that stands out as an undeniable classic.
Advertisement
It was December 20, 2002, and the Portland Trail Blazers were in Oakland to take on the Golden State Warriors. With Christmas just five days away, the players proved they were anything but in a giving spirit during the final moments of the game.
With the game tied at 111-all, Blazers big man Rasheed Wallace shot and made a high-arcing jumper to win the game for Portland. Before the ball even passed through the rim, tensions had already flared between “Rip City’s” Bonzi Wells and the Dubs’ Chris Mills. Their heated exchange only escalated after the final buzzer, with Mills seeking to confront Wells long after the game had ended.
Mills wanted a piece of Bonzi
As the scuffle escalated, Richardson recalled not having many teammates on the floor with them, as most had already gone to the locker room after seeing Wallace hit the game-winning shot.
Advertisement
“So me and Gil, we’re seeing everything going on, making sure it’s cool. Like, half the team literally left. The only people on the court were me, Gil, Chris, and Troy Murphy. So it’s a veteran and three rookies. Everybody else had left the court,” Jason said on Paul George’s podcast.
“When they start hugging, and you start seeing this tussle, it’s on. So we all run out there, and we’re trying to break stuff up. I seen Ruben coming, I seen Gilbert grabbing a chair. It’s going crazy, right? It’s going into the stands, and it’s getting out of control,” he added.
As the on-court shenanigans die down and the players head to their respective locker rooms, Richardson shared how Mills was anxious to change clothes and get out of there. Moments later, Jason and his teammates learned the reason why.
“So we go outside, and all we see is a six-fo’ lowrider and a black Suburban. Come to find out that lowrider and that black Suburban, they blocked the bus from leaving. That bus stayed in the tunnel for like an hour, hour and a half. Chris Mills is telling Bonzi to get off. ‘Get off the bus, me and you, we going to have it,'” he narrated.
Advertisement
Anxious moments inside the bus
J-Rich later found out from then-Blazers big man Zach Randolph that there were plenty of anxious moments inside their bus when they saw they were being kept from leaving the arena. As Mills is a California native and the game was held in Oakland, he obviously had connections in the area, which instilled fear in the hearts of the Blazers players.
“On the other side of the story, I found out from Z-Bo. Z-Bo was on the bus, and everybody’s telling Bonzi, ‘Hey man, you gotta go handle this,'” Richardson shared.
Advertisement
One person who wasn’t afraid to embrace conflict was Randolph, who wanted to go outside and confront Mills himself.
“So Mo (Cheeks) told Z-Bo, ‘Man, they might got some guns.’ Z-Bo’s like, ‘I got my piece on me.’ So everybody on the bus is talking about, ‘Yo, let’s go. We got a gun, we good.’ And I guess Rasheed asked Zebo, ‘Yo, where your piece at?”Well, it’s under the bus.’ Like, ‘Z-Bo—we can’t. It’s under the bus. We in trouble,'” Jason continued sharing the wild story.
The bus eventually made it out of the arena, but again got stuck at the airport after encountering another roadblock. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed, and the Blazers made it out of Oakland without further incident.
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Jun 10, 2025, where it first appeared.