Cedric Maxwell Switches Up Opinions on Warriors in Trash-Talk
It’s always fun seeing NBA legends root for the teams they’re the most well-recognized as playing for. The type of loyalty that you rarely see why players are in the league really comes out in the post-playing career. Such is the case for Celtics legend Cedric Maxwell, a two-time champion in the 80s and even a Finals MVP in 1981, both with Boston. Since retiring, he’s become an analyst for the Celtics.
He’s also been one of the most vocal of the media’s various Warriors haters through this series. Naturally, this is to be expected, given he’s an analyst for Boston, but what’s been the most interesting part is that he can’t really pick an opinion to have about Golden State that isn’t self-contradictory. Before the NBA Finals began, Maxwell was adamant about how the Celtics needed to be physical, calling them “tuxedo players” and assuring his confidence that the Celtics would win:
Maxwell was quick to call this team soft. Where the opinions that the Warriors have been a soft team this season came from is unclear, but given that Boston’s been lauded as this hard-nosed, defense-first, physical team, it’s not shocking that the Warriors caught some strays like this when the two teams are compared.
Where it gets fun, though, is Maxwell’s opinion on Draymond Green… Just two games after his commentary about “tuxedo players”:
Now this is a little different from the analysis he was doing prior to Game 1, as he’s being asked questions by contemporary Gary Payton (the original Glove), who’s son is on the Warriors. It’s obvious from the jump that this is a little bit more of a trash-talk segment, which makes it a little different than prior analysis.
However, it doesn’t mean that Cedric Maxwell didn’t switch up.
While he could’ve doubled down on his comments, he seems to have decided to take a different route. Inferencing someone would get “knocked out” in the 80s for plays that are pretty commonplace in the modern NBA is certainly a take. The Warriors-Celtics series, especially Game 2, has been filled with a bunch of hard-nose basketball, and streaky officiating has made it hard to see what’s really a foul and what isn’t in the context of these Finals.
Both sides seem to think there’s some favoritism with the refs, and while the Celtics can make claims about Jaylen Brown getting a whistle for grazing Gary Payton II, or that Draymond should’ve been ejected because him and Brown got tangled up on a closeout, it certainly goes both ways, with Steph Curry getting clipped pretty bad on two threes in the last game, and Jordan Poole getting pushed in the back on layups, and a few other plays. It’s really a two-way street.
The Warriors make their way to the TD Garden with the series tied at 1-1. These two games are pivotal, as they could either return home down 3-1, up 3-1, or regain homecourt and go back at 2-2 (the most likely scenario). The bottom line is that the Celtics have to shoot the lights out to beat the Warriors, who have barely turned up a gear and still have lackluster stretches, if both teams are going to get away with physicality. And from the looks of Game 2, it seems like that physicality isn’t going anywhere.
And with that said, I’m more than certain that Cedric Maxwell will have more ammunition to throw around when it comes to talking about Dray and the Warriors.
(Photo credit: National Basketball Association)