Richard Jefferson

You ever see a fashion item that you just NEEDED TO HAVE??? NBA star Richard Jefferson did -- a Vans cheetah-print snapback baseball hat ... and he paid $700 to buy it off some random dude's head!!! RJ was at Hi Fi Kitchen & Cocktails in Scottsdale, AZ Saturday night -- when a dude named Andrew…

It's like a real-life version of "The Wire" ... NBA star Richard Jefferson says he was taken for $2 MILLION ... and played a key role in a covert FBI operation to catch the (alleged) bad guy and recover his cash. It's all part of new legal docs obtained by TMZ Sports ... in which the 34-year-old…