Speaker 1: This is kJ Live with Chris john Sallie and Chris
Speaker 1: is having conversations with influencers in the sports world and
Speaker 1: entertainment in a strain. Now here's Chris Johnson. You're now
Speaker 1: tuned in to kJ lock. Today's guest on the show,
Speaker 1: there's a two time NBA champion for the Boston Celtics.
Speaker 1: He was named NBA Finals MVP in He now works
Speaker 1: as a radio analyst for those same Celtics. Ladies and gentlemen,
Speaker 1: let's welcome in NBA legend Cedric Maxwell to the show.
Speaker 1: What's happening to Maxe? Well, thank you man for having me?
Speaker 1: You did? You left with that one value a partner.
Speaker 1: I played with your daddy That would drive me to go.
Speaker 1: That was the that was like at the end of
Speaker 1: all that playing with the Clippers. I I enjoyed him.
Speaker 1: You know, we battled so much when your dad played
Speaker 1: with the he was there with Milwaukee, and then all
Speaker 1: of a sudden we both got to be a little
Speaker 1: bit older and we got traded away from our prospective
Speaker 1: teams and ended up in the l A that day
Speaker 1: in l A with the Clippers, and we had so
Speaker 1: much fun. The only thing I laughed about is. I
Speaker 1: told him, I said, here I was. Every time they
Speaker 1: introduced your dad uh as the Clippers. Everybody, Yeah, Marcus,
Speaker 1: every time they introduced me, go back to bosting your pomb.
Speaker 1: We hate you here. So every city I played in
Speaker 1: that year, I got booed, except when I came to Boston. Funny,
Speaker 1: that's funny. L a fan cup of fans got their
Speaker 1: nerve trying to bull a Boston god. They claimed to
Speaker 1: hate the Lakers. So I don't understand how they were
Speaker 1: booing you, But I guess so, man, I guess that's
Speaker 1: how it's going down back then in the eighties. Uh,
Speaker 1: talk to me about though Donald Sterling's Clippers. What it
Speaker 1: was like during that era. My dad's been on the
Speaker 1: show man here talking about y'all was practicing. I would,
Speaker 1: you know, Pomona understanding Motel sixes and it was it
Speaker 1: wasn't really on that level, Yeah it was. It was.
Speaker 1: It was from the NBA. It was third world when
Speaker 1: you think about playing in the NBA all the luxuries
Speaker 1: that kind of go along with it. That for us
Speaker 1: was was kind of crazy. But I think we enjoyed it.
Speaker 1: You know, we had a bunch of veteran guys who
Speaker 1: came there all of a sudden, we were we basically
Speaker 1: surrounded Derek Smith. At that time, it was gonna be
Speaker 1: a buddy superstar in the league. And and then he
Speaker 1: got hurt and the first i think first five games
Speaker 1: of the season. We were in the first five games
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, we're off to a good start.
Speaker 1: And then everybody got hurt and you had that Clipper,
Speaker 1: that Clipper jinks, and uh, we never we never recovered again.
Speaker 1: It was it was fun being out there. It was
Speaker 1: really different from me because you know, obviously playing in
Speaker 1: championship games with the Celtics. Remember when one called in particular,
Speaker 1: I'm playing and and and the referee something happened and
Speaker 1: I got fouled and I was like, you know, and
Speaker 1: I looked at him. He's like, you're not with us
Speaker 1: any more. And the Clippers you're not getting that damn call.
Speaker 1: There's no way you're getting that call. So so it
Speaker 1: was really strange kind of being out there, being in
Speaker 1: that environment and trying to understand the nature and how
Speaker 1: really the game changed from being with the Celtics a contender,
Speaker 1: to somebody with the Clippers, who were pretenders at the time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you, I mean the contrast and the organization's probably
Speaker 1: was a show shock for you. I saw that you
Speaker 1: had moved out to Palace Verdes and and one of
Speaker 1: the big things for you when you're in l A.
Speaker 1: Was the commute. The drive, I mean two hours to
Speaker 1: two hours from just talk a little bit about that
Speaker 1: first kind of year and getting acclimated to the l A.
Speaker 1: C that that was that was really strange. We moved
Speaker 1: Don Cheney, who was the head coach at that time, Um,
Speaker 1: he decided he he left out in Palace version said,
Speaker 1: my wife used to babysitter's kids and they were really
Speaker 1: good ends and found a great house out in Palace Verties.
Speaker 1: But he said, the commute, it was essentially it was
Speaker 1: gonna be maybe about almost an hour going into the
Speaker 1: sports arena, then an hour back, and like on a
Speaker 1: game day, essentially it was about four about a four
Speaker 1: hour drive on the road. And uh, it was that
Speaker 1: was that was diff But it was one thing about it,
Speaker 1: I always said after the game, it was peaceful. It
Speaker 1: gave me a chance to kind of detox a little bit.
Speaker 1: When you played in the game. Sometimes when you live
Speaker 1: really near you're you know, you're still pumped up. Well
Speaker 1: that gave me a chance to it just kind of
Speaker 1: wrapped my mind around what happened and detox and get
Speaker 1: back home and and there was nothing like living out
Speaker 1: in Palace Verdes. Essentially I had a house that looked
Speaker 1: out onto the Pacific Ocean and looked out on h
Speaker 1: I could see Catalina, So it was it was. It
Speaker 1: was a great place to stay, and it's one of
Speaker 1: these places I wish I had sold at that time.
Speaker 1: It was a ranch, three bedroom. We got it for
Speaker 1: three hundred and ninety five thousand dollars and uh, the
Speaker 1: Pacific Ocean was our backyard. So now I don't know
Speaker 1: if it's three million or yeah, it was. It was
Speaker 1: at the end of a dead in street, so it
Speaker 1: was like we were on the hillside and there was
Speaker 1: nothing in front us, so all you could see was
Speaker 1: the ocean. So it was a great view. But it
Speaker 1: was again just trying to understand l A and then
Speaker 1: trying to understand basically like being in l A. I
Speaker 1: think the biggest thing was the adjustment to um being
Speaker 1: famous or not famous, because essentially when you went out
Speaker 1: to l A, I remember, you know, back east, I
Speaker 1: go someplace. Hey, sire, that's why you doing. But then
Speaker 1: got out the l A. It was like people walking
Speaker 1: back me like, oh wait a minute here, hey, But
Speaker 1: I learned that everybody was the start in Hollywood, you know,
Speaker 1: from the from the person parking the cars deserving your
Speaker 1: food that it was only a few people out there
Speaker 1: to stop traffic. And I think Magic was one of
Speaker 1: them at that time. So it was a different environment
Speaker 1: for me. Yeah, you and you probably were on the
Speaker 1: minds of a lot of l A fans from your
Speaker 1: Boston Celtics years. I mean, the greatest rivalry in sports
Speaker 1: in my opinion, Celtics verse Lakers, and you were a
Speaker 1: part of that, like the core run um during the eighties.
Speaker 1: But but what I think a lot of people don't
Speaker 1: realize is before Larry Bird was drafted to the team
Speaker 1: or you know, you were the lead starting small forward
Speaker 1: average nineteen, a game Bird comes in, talk about what
Speaker 1: it took for you to sacrifice and basically get in
Speaker 1: where you fit in if you will, with the Celtics
Speaker 1: team and or as opposed to kind of you know, hey, man,
Speaker 1: I this you know I want to play you know,
Speaker 1: Average nineteen the game I deserved this you know, you
Speaker 1: had you had another you had the opportunity to take
Speaker 1: that standpoint. Max, talk about why you decided to work
Speaker 1: with them. Well, I think that you you you understand
Speaker 1: what greatness is, and you don't fight city Hall. You
Speaker 1: know you're fit. You fit in Uh yeah, average nineteen
Speaker 1: and ten. The year before Larry came. And you know,
Speaker 1: I didn't think I was a big cheese. And Larry
Speaker 1: came the first day of practice and and you know,
Speaker 1: I'm looking at him. I'm you know, and I'm thinking,
Speaker 1: and I was a prejudice of black player, so I
Speaker 1: hadn't seen that many white guys could play. So you
Speaker 1: walked over to the court and I remember doing like
Speaker 1: this great white hope. I'm thinking, to my mind, okay,
Speaker 1: this is its out to be a lay up. And
Speaker 1: I knocked down a couple of shots against him. Okay,
Speaker 1: this is pretty easy. But then he started knocking on
Speaker 1: a couple of shots to me, on me, and then
Speaker 1: I get up closer and closer. Man, I'm sweating. By
Speaker 1: the end of the practice. Man, he's still draining shots.
Speaker 1: I'm like, get to the first black person I can see,
Speaker 1: and I say, you know what, that fucking white guy
Speaker 1: can play right there. That's that was in my mind set.
Speaker 1: So I'm like, hey, so I gotta is to see
Speaker 1: you know, really greatness and that. And then it was like,
Speaker 1: you know, at that that point, I understood that my
Speaker 1: game complimented his game and vice versa, and that you know,
Speaker 1: we were He was an inside I was an inside player,
Speaker 1: he was an outside player. You know. I was gonna
Speaker 1: make it easier for him. He was gonna make it
Speaker 1: easier for me, and um, you know, just trying to
Speaker 1: use your smarts. And and I remember Ricky Davis watching
Speaker 1: him playing when Lebron came in. Yeah, you're not gonna
Speaker 1: you're you're not gonna win that battle, Ricky. There, I
Speaker 1: don't care what you do. You don't have to work
Speaker 1: in that environment. And uh, Larry Burger coming in, you know,
Speaker 1: it was his team, you know, and and and the
Speaker 1: way they paid him where he came in, how he
Speaker 1: was playing. So it was it was an opportunity for
Speaker 1: me to adjust my game. And I had to adjust
Speaker 1: my game, probably most more than most, because not only
Speaker 1: did we get one white player, you know, Larry Burbet, Damn,
Speaker 1: we get Kevin McHale next, and we get probably Parish
Speaker 1: and my shot still going down and down at that
Speaker 1: But it was all about winning. We had the I
Speaker 1: think we had the greatest front line maybe to ever
Speaker 1: play in the game. And those four and and us
Speaker 1: four guys that we have on with Louis and read
Speaker 1: hour about Uh, put created that Big four? Right. It
Speaker 1: was a draft I read you, you know, I started
Speaker 1: off with the foreword and Robert Perris was breaking that
Speaker 1: down on how you guys got together. Uh. I don't
Speaker 1: think he gets enough credit for building it. And I
Speaker 1: don't think that that's that that that Big four really
Speaker 1: gets talked about enough in terms of in NBA history
Speaker 1: and how it was formed and and then and the
Speaker 1: effect and and the lasting effect it had on the game.
Speaker 1: Because y'all always six eight between six eight and seven feet, right,
Speaker 1: so six eight six, Kien sixtens seven feet and then
Speaker 1: Larry at the small forward. But you and Kevin mckill,
Speaker 1: I mean, you guys were pretty much interchangeable and sense
Speaker 1: and it seemed like you would pick up, you would
Speaker 1: take the defensive matchup on the other end. Talk about
Speaker 1: a little been about just changing your mindset from a
Speaker 1: guy that's a nineteen and ten guys sacrificing your points
Speaker 1: just to be able to look like say, hey I
Speaker 1: got i got Bernard King on this series, or I'm
Speaker 1: picking up doc in this series and just just totally
Speaker 1: you know, gave it your all on that end. Well,
Speaker 1: I didn't have a choice. That was the big thing.
Speaker 1: Bill Fitch walked up to me the first day of
Speaker 1: practice said I scored a couple of baskets. I was
Speaker 1: laughing about something and pulled me to the side and
Speaker 1: said it seems like a pretty smart guy. I'm like, yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: where is this going? He goes, um, you know every
Speaker 1: night you're gonna have to guard the toughest guy. I'm like,
Speaker 1: whoa is a minute? You know, I'm I'm a lover,
Speaker 1: I'm not not a not a fighter and uh but
Speaker 1: he made it clear that look, if somebody has to
Speaker 1: be sacrificed, if you have to say, if there's some
Speaker 1: office that's gonna have to be sacrifice, it's gonna have
Speaker 1: to be you. And now I didn't. I was reluctant,
Speaker 1: but after a while I stought to embrace it and
Speaker 1: think how could we win? What could I do to
Speaker 1: make this team better? So, yeah, I had to guard
Speaker 1: guys like your dad. Yeah, you know, guard Marcus and
Speaker 1: you know, had to guard Burnard King and guys like that.
Speaker 1: And it was tough because, you know, on one end
Speaker 1: they were trying to guard Larry and then Larry would
Speaker 1: score on them, but he and but Larry wouldn't guard
Speaker 1: him on the other end, so they'd all be piste
Speaker 1: off by the time they got back down to the
Speaker 1: office of me and and they want to take it
Speaker 1: out on me, like dude, look, hey, hey, why don't
Speaker 1: you take it out a little? And I remember one
Speaker 1: time in particular, Larry was standing beside Bernard King and
Speaker 1: he said switch Switch. I'm like, well, no, you're standing
Speaker 1: right there. You could you could you take him for
Speaker 1: a minute? Those were those were you know, just times. Uh.
Speaker 1: We got Robert Parrish and Kevin mckill all in one
Speaker 1: fatal swoop Golden State Warriors um that year they had
Speaker 1: the third pick in the draft, subits had the first
Speaker 1: pick in the traft, and Golden State came to me
Speaker 1: and said, what we wanna do is we wanna we're
Speaker 1: gonna give you I was a free agent. We're gonna
Speaker 1: give you a big contract once you play with Golden State.
Speaker 1: And when they have Robert Parrish. When you get this
Speaker 1: kid McHale and that's gonna be our front line, I'm like, okay.
Speaker 1: And then two days later I see where the Subtics
Speaker 1: traded their first pick to the Golden State Warriors, and
Speaker 1: Golden State took Joe Barry Carroll and we got Robert
Speaker 1: Parrish and Kevin McKell to Holiday one of the biggest,
Speaker 1: biggest lopsided deal maybe too ever. And I like Joe
Speaker 1: Berry Carroll. You know, it was a good players. He
Speaker 1: was serviceable, he was an All star, but he wasn't
Speaker 1: going to be you know, Hall of Fame material like
Speaker 1: Robert Parrish and Kevin McHale. So it was a outsided
Speaker 1: deal that worked on the favor of the Celtics. After
Speaker 1: you guys won the title one, you had a down
Speaker 1: year the next year. I believe you guys got swept
Speaker 1: by the Bucks. Don't tell me, but I had to
Speaker 1: bring it up because I could when I used to
Speaker 1: look at that throughout, know when I was younger, right,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, how did this happen? I never understood
Speaker 1: it that I saw a couple of lines in the
Speaker 1: book where you said the player you guys basically or
Speaker 1: the players were just kind of kind of grown weary
Speaker 1: of Coach Fitch because of his hard grinding style. Just
Speaker 1: talk about that year coach Fitches style and why you
Speaker 1: know that collapse sort of happened. It was a sweep
Speaker 1: to the Bucks, I mean unexpected after the championship. Well,
Speaker 1: I think one of the things that happened was that
Speaker 1: they said Bill Fitch was he was a taskmaster and
Speaker 1: he he he didn't allow us to grow his men.
Speaker 1: Because of that, I think there was a rebelliot uh
Speaker 1: you know where Robert Parrish and Kevin McHale and Nate Archie,
Speaker 1: but a lot of people just were tired. And give
Speaker 1: you an example like say, for instance, if we were
Speaker 1: at the man if we're a Madison Square Garden playing
Speaker 1: the game. Bill Fitch had this rule early on that
Speaker 1: if we're at the garden after the game team stayed overnight,
Speaker 1: we would have to go back to the hotel, even
Speaker 1: if you have free and waiting for you, uh you know,
Speaker 1: at the garden after the game, you had to go
Speaker 1: back to get on the team all the way back
Speaker 1: and then come back if you want to. And and
Speaker 1: guys got really you know, worry about that and and
Speaker 1: there were a lot of things and and Bill just
Speaker 1: did not let go. Instead of once you win the championship,
Speaker 1: you've created you need to create more of an environment
Speaker 1: and you grow as a coach and you let your
Speaker 1: more leeway. Well, Bill didn't do that. He wanted to
Speaker 1: maintain those same rules and didn't allow us to grow
Speaker 1: as players. And I think that really took a toll
Speaker 1: one how we performed. And it just almost seemed like
Speaker 1: a mutiny that that that year that we lost to
Speaker 1: the Bucks, just like we were probably we were a
Speaker 1: better team, obviously a better team to get swelled, but
Speaker 1: it was just so many guys just seemed to be
Speaker 1: so piste off that we we just didn't play well
Speaker 1: at all. And then and it reflected itself just as
Speaker 1: far as like effort and lock in as far as
Speaker 1: what coach is telling y'all and executing game plans kind
Speaker 1: of like man, f this or wasn't it like that
Speaker 1: type of prevalent attitude like f this stuff? We you know,
Speaker 1: I'm not rolling coach. Yeah, And I think that that's
Speaker 1: what you know, a lot of guys were. It was
Speaker 1: a mattitude that they felt like it was it was
Speaker 1: just too much form and because of that, I think
Speaker 1: that it made us. It took us from being a
Speaker 1: tight team to a bunch of individuals. And you know
Speaker 1: in the NBA that you cannot win a series. You
Speaker 1: can't win if you have the environment where you are splintering.
Speaker 1: And that's what happened that year. We were splintered and
Speaker 1: because of that we got what by the Bucks and
Speaker 1: Bill Fitch ends up leaving and uh, Casey Jones comes
Speaker 1: in and Casey Jones takes on the mantle and you know,
Speaker 1: we go want to win another championship with the guys
Speaker 1: who have versus electors. Who was the big biggest difference
Speaker 1: between Kate coach Casey Jones and coach Bill Fitch. I
Speaker 1: think that Casey was in the mindset he he he
Speaker 1: had been a former player and nothing nothing wrong with
Speaker 1: you know, you know guys who have ever played, because
Speaker 1: great Great probably is one of the greatest. But coaches
Speaker 1: we had, but I think that he had a sense
Speaker 1: of what we needed and he really let go and
Speaker 1: he allowed those guys to be individuals and and I
Speaker 1: think they were They played harder for him and respected
Speaker 1: the fact of what he gave us. And then those
Speaker 1: players gave it back to him. So I think that's
Speaker 1: why we want Oh man, it told I mean, you
Speaker 1: could really see the differences just in the years and
Speaker 1: in the level of lock in and how you guys finished.
Speaker 1: You guys finished that season with under Casey winning the championship,
Speaker 1: correct me beating the Lakers. Fox Sports Radio has the
Speaker 1: best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of
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Speaker 1: the I Heart Radio app search f s R to
Speaker 1: listen live. Something I love listening to you talk about
Speaker 1: and reading about, especially when you when you were on
Speaker 1: Coop's Michael Cooper's podcast, You're talking about the Bakers, straight
Speaker 1: up Bakers, okay, and you go, you know you gonna
Speaker 1: you don't make it, You're gonna make me keep it real.
Speaker 1: I hope you got one of them button that you
Speaker 1: can make it my words, because I've been I've been
Speaker 1: really Lucive've been very solid here, you know, even say yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's all good, and it's all good. Man. I just
Speaker 1: want to know where the hate came from. Why. I mean,
Speaker 1: I know the rivalry, I get it, but what what
Speaker 1: was it? Was there an exciting incident Max that like
Speaker 1: y'all was like, oh, man, them dudes on the l
Speaker 1: A man, f them, Tragic Johnson, James Worthy, what happened?
Speaker 1: What was it? That was it? That was it? They
Speaker 1: were Hollywood and we just did not like that, you know,
Speaker 1: we were we were the hard working team and you
Speaker 1: and Magic smiling all the time and ship that just
Speaker 1: really arked our players, and we just didn't. We just
Speaker 1: didn't like it. And because of that, I mean, we
Speaker 1: just took and I think one of the things you
Speaker 1: look at most of their players, most of the players
Speaker 1: on the Lakers were drafted and went to college as
Speaker 1: high prospects. You know, Kareem did, one of the all
Speaker 1: time greats, Magic, James Worthy, Cooper, all these guys right
Speaker 1: now we're and you look at most of the guys
Speaker 1: who were on the Celtics. Larry Brewer went to Indiana State.
Speaker 1: I went to U and see Charlotte. Robert Parrish went
Speaker 1: to Sitting Therey mL Carr went to Guilford. So we
Speaker 1: had all these guys who are going to smaller schools,
Speaker 1: and I think because of that, they felt that much
Speaker 1: more threatened by you know, those those big time, big
Speaker 1: time name players that you played damn. You had Pat
Speaker 1: Riley over there, and that was I just talked to
Speaker 1: Pat when we played the uh we're playing Miami, and
Speaker 1: I mentioned something to him and had him laughing now
Speaker 1: because he walked out of the room and a back
Speaker 1: and Alonzo Morning walked out first, and Alonzo's Frat, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm the mega. He walked out first, and I said,
Speaker 1: what's up, Frat, you know, talked to him and then
Speaker 1: right after that here comes out the room. He walks
Speaker 1: out pat Riley, and I said, Pat, what's up? He
Speaker 1: does He looks at me, goes this, turns about like yo, man.
Speaker 1: He said, man, I don't want to talk to you,
Speaker 1: and I told him to stir. I said, Pat, you
Speaker 1: one of my all times favorite stories was with you.
Speaker 1: I was were playing the Lakers and there were three
Speaker 1: guys on the bench over there for the Lakers. One
Speaker 1: of them his name was Larry Spriggs. I think the
Speaker 1: Sprigs is over there talking a bunch of ships. The
Speaker 1: whole time, him and his boys three of Max, Well,
Speaker 1: you ain't ship, You ain't this, you ain't that. I
Speaker 1: was like, okay, all right. So the ball goes alabounas
Speaker 1: near pat Riley and I'm the designated guy taking the
Speaker 1: ball out of battles. So the referee is about to
Speaker 1: hit me the basketball and I said, I said, hold
Speaker 1: a minute. The reph we kind of looked at me,
Speaker 1: like what you're talking about? Just hold up a minute?
Speaker 1: Pass that beside me, I said, Pat, get your get
Speaker 1: your button ready here, I said, give me a favor.
Speaker 1: Put when the motherfucker's in down there, does you get
Speaker 1: in the game. Spriggs comes in, I'll score on him.
Speaker 1: I'll score a couple of baskets. You know. Pat takes
Speaker 1: him out before he goes out. I'm like, next time,
Speaker 1: real people and real players out here working working hard.
Speaker 1: Maybe you shut your damn mouthing over there. He went
Speaker 1: over there and sat down and it was quiet. Pat
Speaker 1: Riley said something to me was so so funny, you know,
Speaker 1: I told him the story, said, I know Springs gave
Speaker 1: you work over there. I'm like, man, then if fundlet's
Speaker 1: be Spreings gonna put their springs up, we come on, man,
Speaker 1: you're serious. That was worth funny moments. One thing about
Speaker 1: you know the Lakers who they were, And now I
Speaker 1: got this big thing going back and forth with James
Speaker 1: Worthy and you know where we're we're kind of bickering
Speaker 1: in the in the news from time to time, and uh,
Speaker 1: James Worthy is almost like, uh, when everybody said anybody
Speaker 1: stept Trump, James Worthy is anybody except the self. So
Speaker 1: so I'm saying I said that James Worthy, I said
Speaker 1: some I think it was. One of the reporters asked
Speaker 1: me a question, so what do you how do you
Speaker 1: feel about the Lakers? I said, well, I said, you
Speaker 1: know right now to where we're playing. I said, you
Speaker 1: know what, and James this is James Worthy. I said, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, when we win the championship this year, I
Speaker 1: want you. They always said we're tied together. I said,
Speaker 1: tell me how, I asked Mills since I passed by
Speaker 1: it was gross and James Worthy said, damn, that was
Speaker 1: out with. James Worth said, well, Leasie could get some original,
Speaker 1: some something he could said original. I'm like, you can't
Speaker 1: say nothing no more original than that. The kind of
Speaker 1: my ass smell is a passing value. So they showed
Speaker 1: James Worthy. I guess after uh, after Golden State beat us,
Speaker 1: you see James Worthy has a picture James Worthy, and
Speaker 1: he is he's mocking the Celtics by doing the same
Speaker 1: thing that Steph Curry did and said good night Celtics,
Speaker 1: like and that's anybody except the Celtics, and you know,
Speaker 1: just doesn't want so we keep going back and forth.
Speaker 1: And but you know, he told me one of the
Speaker 1: most interesting stories. She said, Max, I really liked you.
Speaker 1: I really loved corn bread. He said. I was in college.
Speaker 1: You know, you were in college and you would see Charlotte.
Speaker 1: He was from Gastonia, which is about twenty miles away,
Speaker 1: and we were playing that night. We're playing Robert Parish
Speaker 1: sitting there university and that was a big We were
Speaker 1: the two top Independence and said me and Robert Pashil go.
Speaker 1: He said, man, you don't know. I was in the
Speaker 1: front row of that game watching you guys. He said,
Speaker 1: I love watching you play. So it was just kind
Speaker 1: of strange for him to say something that was actually positive,
Speaker 1: you know, when it came to me or about the Celtics.
Speaker 1: But you know, he I liked you, actually like James Worthy.
Speaker 1: You know, he's one of the greatest players to ever
Speaker 1: to play the game. I wouldn't say that out loud
Speaker 1: for him or anybody else I norm on your podcast,
Speaker 1: but you know that that's that's just the truth. They
Speaker 1: had a great team. Kareem was my favorite player of
Speaker 1: all time. I wore number thirty three in college because
Speaker 1: and I told this to Kareem, I said, you're my
Speaker 1: favorite player. And I wore the number thirt three in college.
Speaker 1: And when I got to the Celtics, I wanted thirty three.
Speaker 1: But there was a guy, Steve Gibirsky, who wore the number,
Speaker 1: and then they gave me thirty and then it's he
Speaker 1: cut that he got cut. But I was like, they said,
Speaker 1: you want to change numbers like now, No, they know
Speaker 1: what happens. Larry Bird comes in and gets thirty three,
Speaker 1: so I probably would have had to change that number. Anyway,
Speaker 1: I noticed you you wore several different numbers during your
Speaker 1: NBA career. Correct was there any rhyme? I mean, I
Speaker 1: know the obvious with Kareem and then Bird, but what
Speaker 1: about the other numbers. Were there any rhymo reasons behind that?
Speaker 1: Or you like the numb When I was with the Celtics,
Speaker 1: I wore the number thirty. That's the first number that
Speaker 1: gave me. And then mL car we got him um
Speaker 1: as a free agent, and he wore number thirty and
Speaker 1: asked me could he have that number? And I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: I just have to have a number. So I gave
Speaker 1: me thirty one, and uh, you know, I end up
Speaker 1: make taking that to the rafters and all that. But
Speaker 1: then I went to the Clippers, I think I wore
Speaker 1: I see the nineteen, and then I think my last
Speaker 1: year after with the Rockets, I wore eighteen. And that
Speaker 1: there was no rhyme of reason. A jersey was a
Speaker 1: jersey to me back then, and just to have one
Speaker 1: on your back was cool. Yeah. In eighty four, you you, um,
Speaker 1: you guys wanted title that. I think you got hurt
Speaker 1: and got traded in the same year. Talk a little
Speaker 1: bit about it was a little controversial exit. UM Now,
Speaker 1: I kind of wanted to hear in your words what
Speaker 1: happened with that scenario as far as you being traded
Speaker 1: and the way you exited Boston. UM. In nineteen eighty
Speaker 1: four when the championship UH seventh game here in Boston,
Speaker 1: uh eight and eight. I had in that final game
Speaker 1: against your guy James Worthy when points were points were
Speaker 1: premium at that time, and end up winning the game,
Speaker 1: leading the team and scoring let him in I think
Speaker 1: assists in that game. The big time thing for me.
Speaker 1: It was even you know, for me, although I was
Speaker 1: the final's MVP and eighty one that was just that
Speaker 1: was just as good, if not better, beating the Lakers
Speaker 1: in that way. The very next year we win the championship,
Speaker 1: I came back and I had a monists tear in
Speaker 1: my knee and couldn't in the middle of the season
Speaker 1: and couldn't come back, and Kevin McHale started and he
Speaker 1: had the game of fifty six points and I knew
Speaker 1: that was the last game that I was gonna be
Speaker 1: starting with the Sultans and they were looking to trade
Speaker 1: me then. The only thing about it, I was just
Speaker 1: upset because I just wanted them to wish me the
Speaker 1: same kind of luck. We had won two championships together.
Speaker 1: I've done so many things for this team, and at
Speaker 1: the end of the day they to leave in that
Speaker 1: manner like, you know, like I was a bad guy.
Speaker 1: And it's really always strange because you know, the year
Speaker 1: the next year, eighty five, when I couldn't come back,
Speaker 1: I was the person that they blamed essentially for losing
Speaker 1: the championship because I couldn't come back from the injury.
Speaker 1: And I was like, man, how good was I If
Speaker 1: you had Robert Parrish, if you had Kevin mckill, if
Speaker 1: you had Larry Bird, and you have Dennis Johnson, you
Speaker 1: had four Hall of Famers, But you blame me for,
Speaker 1: you know, losing the championship. So it told me my
Speaker 1: value to the team. So when I finally left, I
Speaker 1: just said it was it was it was animosity. I
Speaker 1: just wanted to leave and I just wanted them to
Speaker 1: wish me luck, and and they traded me for Bill Walton,
Speaker 1: and Bill came in and played for a year. They
Speaker 1: won the championship the next year, and I went to
Speaker 1: the Clippers, and you know, I was, I was. I
Speaker 1: was happy about leaving. I was stupid about leaving, though,
Speaker 1: because I left a lot of money on the table. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, the money I was the guy, uh you
Speaker 1: know by being with the Celtics that year. Uh my
Speaker 1: shoe deal essentially was you know, went from a hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty thousand dollars a year from pony to almost
Speaker 1: having to buy some damn shoes. So it was it
Speaker 1: was just it was just kind of strange. But but
Speaker 1: I just left in haste because I was just very
Speaker 1: I was just piste off at the organization because um,
Speaker 1: I guess my Um they the boss that they checked
Speaker 1: to me was my credibility and who I was us
Speaker 1: as a person. You never checked that during the times
Speaker 1: we want so when I got hurt, how can you check?
Speaker 1: And that's why I'm very seldom I'm ever you ever
Speaker 1: going to hear me say anything about a player being
Speaker 1: hurt and questioning what he can do, because the player
Speaker 1: is the only one that knows his body. You know,
Speaker 1: they can say you're ready and do all this other stuff,
Speaker 1: but at the end of the day, it's the player
Speaker 1: that's going to make that decision. And and that's why,
Speaker 1: you know, really pissed me off about that when I
Speaker 1: left the weather and went to the Clippers. Yeah. And
Speaker 1: these stories that you're talking about, and a bunch of
Speaker 1: other good stuff are all in your book. If these
Speaker 1: walls could talk what you dropped in December correct and
Speaker 1: talk about the timing of the book. Um, what sort
Speaker 1: of inspired you to write it and to address some
Speaker 1: of this stuff into and to really share a lot
Speaker 1: of untold, absolutely hilarious stories about your time in the league. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean it was it just seemed like it was
Speaker 1: time to me. I remember having a bunch of stories,
Speaker 1: and I'm always doing public speaking, and somebody came to
Speaker 1: me and said, yeah, man, I need you to talk
Speaker 1: about you know, this and that and what happened. I said,
Speaker 1: And then somebody approached me about writing the book. And
Speaker 1: one of the stories, which you know I love and
Speaker 1: that you probably want, was the story with your dad. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, me and Marcus and and Franklin net was
Speaker 1: were playing woman Frankly, it was were playing pool in
Speaker 1: Los Angeles and your dad. Your dad walks in and
Speaker 1: you know, he's like, yeah, I can shoot, I can shoot.
Speaker 1: Me and frankl way shooting and you know, we're relatively quiet.
Speaker 1: So your dad comes in and he saw a shooting
Speaker 1: knocking down balls and I said, frank Franklin, I said,
Speaker 1: you know, let me test Marcus right here. Let me see.
Speaker 1: And I started yelling. I said, you know, while he's
Speaker 1: trying to shoot. I said, oh, and you love this.
Speaker 1: I said, you can't play that, niggapool. Can't you play that?
Speaker 1: You're playing that? U c l A. You know quiet.
Speaker 1: Everybody has to be the wine and cheese crown. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: you you you're the cheese crown. Brother. I start yelling
Speaker 1: at it man that brother couldn't make a But your
Speaker 1: dad told that, and I forgot about the story. But
Speaker 1: the author went and told your dad about asked your
Speaker 1: dad about, you know, when I played with the clippers,
Speaker 1: and he remembered he told the story, and the author
Speaker 1: was telling the story and then we're about to put
Speaker 1: it in the book. And then that the author that
Speaker 1: that people are so politically correct now. They were like, oh,
Speaker 1: we can't use that word. Uh nika pole, we can't
Speaker 1: use that. I said, I said, well, what word are
Speaker 1: you gonna use? Well, how about we use African American.
Speaker 1: I'm like, what the hell I think that was the
Speaker 1: I don't think that was gonna scare my man. So no,
Speaker 1: we said, I'll tell you what we can do. You
Speaker 1: can use in I g and you know, let somebody's
Speaker 1: imagineation go. But we were we're not taking that word.
Speaker 1: That that was. That was the crusts of it. And
Speaker 1: your dad was so funny when he told that story.
Speaker 1: And uh, when the guy told me about it what
Speaker 1: Marcus had said, he said, I was intelligent, I wasn't funny.
Speaker 1: I was funny. I was a great player. And it
Speaker 1: was it really was built up. But then when he
Speaker 1: told me the story about the fool game that I forgot,
Speaker 1: I was like, damn, that's right. We did have Marcus Johnson.
Speaker 1: They're playing pool, and he was so funny because he
Speaker 1: got he just got round. You know, you know, your
Speaker 1: dad is cool calling McCay. He he might be one
Speaker 1: of the coolest dudes with you know, I'm not sure.
Speaker 1: There's just Denzel and then your day, your dad's up
Speaker 1: there something like cool. But when he heard me talking
Speaker 1: about that, yelling at to the top of my lunch, oh,
Speaker 1: you can't play that, niggabool when I'm yelling at you
Speaker 1: can't play that because and he just bust out. So
Speaker 1: that was a great story that I think that we
Speaker 1: had in the book. And there were many stories that
Speaker 1: I end up putting in the book that were really good.
Speaker 1: One of the most fascinating ones I think was talking
Speaker 1: to my um. The guy asked me about my family. Initially,
Speaker 1: I said, man, with a great story. I ended up
Speaker 1: doing a girl that had that had been within college
Speaker 1: forty years ago to sit me. Uh sent me a
Speaker 1: leather a text message saying, well, four years ago I
Speaker 1: wrote your leather and I told you I had your
Speaker 1: daughter that that woman has now found me, and um,
Speaker 1: I told her you were her dad, And I didn't
Speaker 1: think that was possible because you know, I knew who
Speaker 1: this woman was and what was going on in life.
Speaker 1: So I end up I end up taking the paternity test.
Speaker 1: Turnity test came back zero point zero point zero. So
Speaker 1: I told her, you know, I don't know, it's not true.
Speaker 1: You know it's true. You know, you know I was
Speaker 1: just the best candidate. So yeah, anyway, I'm telling my
Speaker 1: I'm talking to my sister, Lisa. I said, Lisa, I
Speaker 1: just want to let you know I took a fraternity test,
Speaker 1: and without sing to beat, my sister said, oh, so
Speaker 1: you can find out who your real father is. I'm like,
Speaker 1: that's another candidate. That's another candid worm. Yeah, that one
Speaker 1: when I was talking about and uh, it made me
Speaker 1: made me going to the process now going back and
Speaker 1: found out I was not I was not born Cedric Maxwell.
Speaker 1: I was Centric, folks, That's who I was. I was
Speaker 1: born out of way lock. My dad was the Ford
Speaker 1: small and my mom just kind of glossed over and
Speaker 1: she ended up married Manny Maxwell, who was in the military,
Speaker 1: and Manny took us took me around the world, took
Speaker 1: me Hawaii, all over the places places he was stationed,
Speaker 1: and gave me his name. And but they never told
Speaker 1: me until I did not officially here until I was
Speaker 1: about sixty years old, that my my cousin, who was
Speaker 1: ten years older than me and ten years younger than
Speaker 1: my mom, finally said, yeah, I remember you remember with
Speaker 1: your little snotty nosed you was Cedric Folks at the time.
Speaker 1: And that's the first time ever heard that my name
Speaker 1: was different. Found out that I had a brother who
Speaker 1: was also six sight. So my life has really been
Speaker 1: a kaleidoscope here, I say, in the last five or
Speaker 1: six years, that's deep. What is it like? I wanted
Speaker 1: to ask you this specifically, what is it like growing
Speaker 1: up having grown up in Kinston, North Carolina. We have
Speaker 1: a couple of NBA players, uh, Jerry Stackhouse, Brandon Ingram,
Speaker 1: what's in the water down there? And what was life
Speaker 1: like growing up in the area that you did in Kinston,
Speaker 1: North Carolina. Well, I think that's really strange because you
Speaker 1: say that and there were there were they say that,
Speaker 1: you know, they got the Emmy for there was a
Speaker 1: documentary on um there's something in the Water the story
Speaker 1: about Kinston, North Carolina and they got the Emmy for
Speaker 1: it was myself in per capita, Kinston, North Carolina has
Speaker 1: had more professional basketball players and even players are round
Speaker 1: that uh than any other place maybe in the world.
Speaker 1: I mean the place only has about thirty thou or
Speaker 1: twenty five thousand people. Now for the last I said,
Speaker 1: the last forty years has always had somebody in the NBA,
Speaker 1: if not one, if not to I mean Um Bullock
Speaker 1: who played with Dallas, he's actually he's actually from Kingston.
Speaker 1: Jerry Stackhouse was from Kingston, and then Ingram from Kinston.
Speaker 1: Charles Shackelford who played in the league is from Kingston.
Speaker 1: Mitchell Wiggins who is right outside of Kingston. Uh. You know,
Speaker 1: so there are so many players that played during the
Speaker 1: era and it's just it's a hotbed of basketball essentially.
Speaker 1: That's what we did. You know, we we played ball
Speaker 1: all the time and that was a way to get out.
Speaker 1: I was the first one that you know, got out,
Speaker 1: went to UNC Charlotte and then eventually made it to
Speaker 1: the Celtics, and then after that the preceding years, we've
Speaker 1: always had a player, uh this come out of Kilston
Speaker 1: has played major commins basketball, and it eventually got itself
Speaker 1: into the pros very Dope, very dope area of the country.
Speaker 1: Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
Speaker 1: the nation. Catch all of our shows at Fox sports
Speaker 1: Radio dot com and within the I Heart Radio app.
Speaker 1: Search f s R to listen live. UM fast forwarding
Speaker 1: really quickly to the contemporary times, today's game. Um, you
Speaker 1: you recently and the reason it's funny how you came
Speaker 1: up because I was showing my dad the video of
Speaker 1: you g P and Draymond Hemond. Hey you were you
Speaker 1: went on the mike, Hey because I told you, because
Speaker 1: I said I wanted to, and then you walked away.
Speaker 1: So I showed my dad. Dad, he was like, let
Speaker 1: me hit him, my man, get him on your podcast.
Speaker 1: But I wanted to just talk to you about the
Speaker 1: core of those comments that Draymond made, kind of in
Speaker 1: a larger scale, talking about today's game and the physicality
Speaker 1: of today's game and why today's player like a Draymond Green,
Speaker 1: has this misprocessing. You wouldn't he wasn't about that action
Speaker 1: back in the day, as I told me. But I
Speaker 1: asked his daddy because Daddy, if he saw me play. Um,
Speaker 1: Draymond Green is a is a central part of what
Speaker 1: they do in Golden State, and there are times when
Speaker 1: he's more of an irritant, uh you know. And he
Speaker 1: was self in the first game. In the second game,
Speaker 1: he was just playing bullet ball. He was sucking guys
Speaker 1: down quickly, falling on people, falling on people. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: just hold on the men, it's like. And then when
Speaker 1: I saw Gary Payton later on, and I just walked
Speaker 1: up to Gary and I said, Gary, let me say
Speaker 1: something about your boy, uh you know, and he said,
Speaker 1: what I said, let me day sit in Draymond ring
Speaker 1: during the eighties, he've been knocked the funk out. That's
Speaker 1: what would have happened. And so I didn't know it
Speaker 1: was being well, I kind of knew it was, but
Speaker 1: I thought they were gonna beat it out when I
Speaker 1: said and I guess it got back to Draymond and
Speaker 1: Draymond and took a fence Cerdric Maxwell said they would
Speaker 1: knock me out, and dad that that, you know, they
Speaker 1: would punch me in the mouth. And he he was
Speaker 1: talking about but I've polled almost every player that I
Speaker 1: played with in the eighties. I could ask your dad
Speaker 1: right now with the stuff that happened that Draymond Green did.
Speaker 1: It's not like these are just facts, bro, that's all
Speaker 1: it is. I'm not hating on him. These just facts
Speaker 1: the matter that I know. He and he mentioned he said, well,
Speaker 1: maybe Bill Lambierre wouldn't lock me up. No, Bill Lambier
Speaker 1: got blasted in Boston Garden by Robert Parrish. And then
Speaker 1: he said the one thing he said, well, you just
Speaker 1: act like people in the eighties were going around punching people.
Speaker 1: Well they were, That's how That's how I was. And
Speaker 1: and I did a show with Isaiah Thomas and I said,
Speaker 1: I'm looking at Isaiah, I'm saying and I went and
Speaker 1: I told him later and I said, how do you
Speaker 1: think you got them stitches across your eye? Right there?
Speaker 1: That was a Karl Malone elbow. And then it was
Speaker 1: for no reason other than you would come to the
Speaker 1: basket call him a little took you out? Did they
Speaker 1: throw called alone out that game? Probably didn't. I behave
Speaker 1: him a technical and you you move on. But that's
Speaker 1: the way the game was played. And I didn't. I
Speaker 1: wasn't trying to offend him. I was just stating the
Speaker 1: fact of how the game was played, and I said
Speaker 1: it during the eighties, this what would have happened. And
Speaker 1: then later on Dreymond came back at me and he
Speaker 1: was like, I was talking to Garrett Payton maybe two
Speaker 1: days after that, and Draymond made at the point of
Speaker 1: coming over and getting in our conversation. I was walking
Speaker 1: out and I'm talking to Gary, and Draymond walks over
Speaker 1: and says, you're gonna be talking to Garrett Paye. You
Speaker 1: don't be talking to people right now who'll be talking
Speaker 1: about me. You will be saying that you know you
Speaker 1: protect me, GP, you protect me, and g P looking like, dude,
Speaker 1: you need to be protected like and I'm like, And
Speaker 1: then at that point I said, Draymond, I'm standing right here,
Speaker 1: you need to talk to me, and he's I don't
Speaker 1: want to talk to you, and then I just I'll
Speaker 1: walk out and that This is what I said. The guys,
Speaker 1: my witness, your dad would love this because I said,
Speaker 1: you know what I said, Gary, I said, let me
Speaker 1: get the funk out of here right now before something happened.
Speaker 1: He's gonna still make thirty million. I ain't making that
Speaker 1: kind of money. So I said, I gotta protect myself
Speaker 1: on the back side and walked out and Draymond and
Speaker 1: that later on he came out kind of right after me,
Speaker 1: and we talked for a minute. I said, Raymond, I'm
Speaker 1: not hating on you said, well, be a man of
Speaker 1: your word. Be a man of your word. You you
Speaker 1: said that you said that somebody was gonna punch me
Speaker 1: the mouth. That ain't what I said. I said, somebody
Speaker 1: in the eighties would knock you the funk out. That's
Speaker 1: what That's what I said. But I didn't want to
Speaker 1: inflame it anymore. I said, I am a man about
Speaker 1: my work. And finally at the end of us said, look,
Speaker 1: I happened to like you. I like what you did,
Speaker 1: but you know, are we good? And we shook hands
Speaker 1: and we walked off. But you know, he's talked about it,
Speaker 1: and people talked about it. Matter of fact that you
Speaker 1: loved that. I think it was on YouTube and had
Speaker 1: almost two million view views when he came to that one.
Speaker 1: I wasn't meaning anything back, but it just happened, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I thought, you know, I get into it all the
Speaker 1: time with with folks on Twitter and just in the
Speaker 1: arguments the younger generation when they talk about the eighties
Speaker 1: and they call the players from the eighties plumbers and
Speaker 1: repair men, and they just disrespect Like it's one thing
Speaker 1: to say things about who you think is better, who
Speaker 1: is nice, and who ain't. But then when you start
Speaker 1: universally disrespecting a whole generation of basketball players, that basically
Speaker 1: set the tone and foundation for what's going on in
Speaker 1: today's NBA. That's where I take umbrage. Well, see that's
Speaker 1: what and that's the one thing I did say to Draymond.
Speaker 1: Draymond said, um he said that, you know, during the eighties,
Speaker 1: if you got kicked out of the game, you'd only
Speaker 1: had you've only been fined about two dollars. Well, that
Speaker 1: that's a that's a mockery. I said, you'n gonna say
Speaker 1: stuff like that. And I said, and I said, even now,
Speaker 1: I said, for Draymond Green to say that that was
Speaker 1: offensive to anybody I played with and anybody around me
Speaker 1: during that time. And I said, because he makes he
Speaker 1: made that third he makes that thirty million dollars a
Speaker 1: year because he was he got on my shoulders and
Speaker 1: everybody around me like the people I stepped on their shoulders,
Speaker 1: So it was disrespectful. The last point I made to
Speaker 1: him or anybody who want to hear that. I said,
Speaker 1: it's only been thirty two now, maybe thirty three guys
Speaker 1: who have been found m VP, and damnn, I'm one
Speaker 1: of them. So I'm not one of these these flies
Speaker 1: that you're going. Well, like he had talked to Charles Barkley,
Speaker 1: you ain't one nothing you he did nothing that that Well,
Speaker 1: you can't say that to me when it comes to
Speaker 1: to my game. He did say something like, well, the
Speaker 1: guys during the eighties, they would have had to increase
Speaker 1: their skill level. Well, their skill levels were really good.
Speaker 1: You probably would have had to increase your skill level
Speaker 1: to play with all the hand checking. Step as great
Speaker 1: as he is during the eighties. I think maybe because
Speaker 1: its been slowed down just a little bit because people
Speaker 1: have been able to put hands on it and and
Speaker 1: kind of push him away. Right now, you can't touch
Speaker 1: you guys, because you can't touch you guys. The way
Speaker 1: he shoots the basketball almost impossible to guard. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: is there if there's a player that you could compare
Speaker 1: Steph Curry too from your error or before that era,
Speaker 1: maybe in the A B A days when they had
Speaker 1: a three pointer. I don't know, Maybe there's a guy
Speaker 1: that just the jumper and the ability just to move
Speaker 1: so well without the ball and then go off the bounce.
Speaker 1: Have you seen anything like it Max before? The only
Speaker 1: guys I know that maybe shot like that was Freddy
Speaker 1: Downtown Brown who would come off these picks and long
Speaker 1: distance knocking down jump shots, moved well without the basketball.
Speaker 1: But but there's nobody really likes there. And and the
Speaker 1: thing that I admire about him, I said, only you
Speaker 1: know his great DESI when you think about Steph Curry,
Speaker 1: only two guys that I know have changed the game,
Speaker 1: and the game had to be changed, see, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of fit them fit them in. One of them
Speaker 1: was Worth Chamberling. They changed the rules. He couldn't be
Speaker 1: in the lane, They made the lanes bigger, they did this.
Speaker 1: The other one, it's Steph Curry with his ability to
Speaker 1: knock down trades. And you see, guys, right now, you
Speaker 1: you've been around ball enough that you you you have
Speaker 1: an understanding that guys who can't even fucking shoot, Now
Speaker 1: that's the first thing to do, run up to the
Speaker 1: three point life so they can give one of these
Speaker 1: size and all this stuff from these shoot threes. It's
Speaker 1: not it. Steph Curry is is a unique individual, and
Speaker 1: he is broad in the game out in a way
Speaker 1: that I can't even imagine. I only hardly understand the
Speaker 1: game anymore, your dad. A lot of people in the
Speaker 1: eighties don't understand the game anymore because instead of taking
Speaker 1: a layout, you're right under the basket, you flinged up
Speaker 1: all out to the two or three points shoot. And
Speaker 1: I mean, I'd rather just give me a solid too
Speaker 1: sometimes then looking for three. But the game has changed
Speaker 1: in that way. I understand that I'm not hating on it,
Speaker 1: but I do understand this change. But in some ways
Speaker 1: don't know if it's changed for the for the better,
Speaker 1: because nobody is like Steph Curry shot the basketball. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And when we say like the game has changed for
Speaker 1: the better or for the worst, I think the game
Speaker 1: now the emphasis is more about basketball entertainment. It's more
Speaker 1: about the marketing aspect. It's more about preserving guys, keeping
Speaker 1: guys healthy, making sure that the stars are able to
Speaker 1: play these dates. You know what I mean. Because so
Speaker 1: it's less about look, the emphasis on competition. Sure, these
Speaker 1: guys are fighting for the championships that they win. They
Speaker 1: earned this stuff. They're busting their butt. But the league
Speaker 1: as a whole, it seems like the emphasis you change.
Speaker 1: If you remember early in the season, Marcus Smart dove
Speaker 1: on the ball playing against the Warriors, Marcus Smart dove
Speaker 1: Steph Curry kind of didn't dive, and then Steph gets hurt.
Speaker 1: But everybody's just calling Marcus Smarter dirty player basically for
Speaker 1: playing hard. Talk about though, just this this basketball entertainment aspect, Max,
Speaker 1: do you understand it, like like the the globalization of
Speaker 1: the game that started with David Stern and incorporating all
Speaker 1: the Europeans in and now you have a game that's
Speaker 1: played at a fast pace, a lot of threes, very
Speaker 1: little physicality on the inside. Just talk a little bit
Speaker 1: about that evolution and and why would it be bad
Speaker 1: for basketball? Like, why isn't this great for the game?
Speaker 1: Without any type of pushback, Well, I think because you
Speaker 1: said entertainment, the aesthetics of shooting the threes. Now the
Speaker 1: the the actions that go along with it. Um, you
Speaker 1: know the bang you get for your buck when Steph
Speaker 1: Curry comes down the steps back behind the line and
Speaker 1: people get a chance and you know the gas and
Speaker 1: you know when that ball goes in. Uh, the game
Speaker 1: has changed. And he said, then they're trying to preserve that.
Speaker 1: You know, you see the longevity of a guy's career now,
Speaker 1: you know when you see Lebron James getting up to
Speaker 1: twenty twenty years and still dropping, you know, almost thirty
Speaker 1: points a game, you know that that was unheard of
Speaker 1: you When me and your father played, it was like
Speaker 1: if you got ten years in the league plus you
Speaker 1: that was a great rear. Now essentially you're in your
Speaker 1: prime because the physicality isn't there, and the workload isn't there.
Speaker 1: The fact that right now teams are teams really uh
Speaker 1: they baby their players and and too in a good way.
Speaker 1: And the fact that they have you know, training resident regiments.
Speaker 1: Sabella food is better. Uh. You know during our time
Speaker 1: we flew commercial uh so, and we stayed at a
Speaker 1: horrible hotels that I can't believe. There's a hotel right
Speaker 1: now that's still out there in l A that we
Speaker 1: used to stay at. That was the Marriott, their port
Speaker 1: Marriott is still out the Essentially, what would happen. You
Speaker 1: would come, we would play Seattle, uh, and then fly
Speaker 1: in the l A playing that playing on the next day,
Speaker 1: you get to l A, you get to the hotel
Speaker 1: and they tell you your room ain't red. It's like
Speaker 1: one of them, like, really, we're an NBA team a room. No,
Speaker 1: your room is not ready. It won't be ready until
Speaker 1: two o'clock till people check out. Whereas now you go
Speaker 1: to the Rich Carlton, you go to the Four Seasons,
Speaker 1: your room is always ready. And the just the the
Speaker 1: lifestyle of the players lying on their own plane is different.
Speaker 1: Obviously the money is different. It's just so many things
Speaker 1: that are different about the game. But one thing you
Speaker 1: do realize that the game is one thing about It
Speaker 1: is about putting the ball in the hole and about
Speaker 1: and that will that probably would never change. Yeah, no
Speaker 1: it won't. Man. I like to finish up just talking
Speaker 1: about these Celtics, uh, this year's team a little bit
Speaker 1: and just what from your vantage point, because I as
Speaker 1: I you know, obviously when it started to where it's come,
Speaker 1: unbelievable evolution, unbelievable improvement on this team. He may has
Speaker 1: just totally just grabbed ahold of the reins and really
Speaker 1: put his imprint on on the identity of this crew.
Speaker 1: But I think one of the things that stood out
Speaker 1: for me, and you can chime in on this without
Speaker 1: a traditional PG moving forward, is this Can the Celtics
Speaker 1: get over the hump without having that type of traditional
Speaker 1: point guard? Yeah, I think they can, and I think
Speaker 1: the game has changed somebody to think about. Um, you
Speaker 1: know all the guys you talked about who are playing
Speaker 1: right now, and you you look at them, you're going
Speaker 1: the game is more about the defensive pressure if you're
Speaker 1: talking about staying out on on the pain. Um, I
Speaker 1: look at the Celtic team right now. I'm excited because
Speaker 1: they're young. You've got Jalen Brown who was under contract,
Speaker 1: you got Tatum who was under contract, Marcus Uh, Rob Williams.
Speaker 1: So the the core unit of guys are better, but
Speaker 1: they're gonna have to add some more pieces, uh to compete.
Speaker 1: Now you say that, and you're looking at going there
Speaker 1: were only two games away from winning the World Championship.
Speaker 1: They were essentially a quarter away from, you know, and
Speaker 1: maybe a couple of minutes away from being up three
Speaker 1: one against Golden State in the in the to say
Speaker 1: it was a fourth game here in Boston. So I
Speaker 1: don't think you're going to really you don't want to
Speaker 1: mess it up. But you look at the league. The
Speaker 1: league has always changing, It's always evolving world World, Kyrie
Speaker 1: Irving World, Real League end up at Uh, you know
Speaker 1: that's gonna be That's gonna be a huge question. I
Speaker 1: heard people say this today and man, that would be fascinating.
Speaker 1: Somebody said, well, maybe Celtics might be able to get
Speaker 1: Kyle Kuzma uh from Washington, because I think what they
Speaker 1: need is another score. And one thing you saw with
Speaker 1: the Celtics, their bitch really kind of let them down
Speaker 1: in the in the finals, Jordan's pool consistently outscored the
Speaker 1: Celtic bitch. H Grant Williards who have been really who
Speaker 1: have played really well, did not have a good finals. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, Pritchard did not have a good finals. I
Speaker 1: think you look at Derek Quite who had a great
Speaker 1: game one and in the game too, but after that
Speaker 1: he kind of fell off the slide. So the Celtics need,
Speaker 1: uh need more. But you got one of the five
Speaker 1: best players in the league when you're talking about uh
Speaker 1: Tatum uh and Brown is not far behind him. You
Speaker 1: have a great coach, you have a great system, you
Speaker 1: have a great organization, but you know you're always gonna
Speaker 1: have to tweak it a little bit and uh fine
Speaker 1: tune this thing if you're going to win the win
Speaker 1: the championship, because obviously you know it's not promise. I
Speaker 1: always tell the story about Dan Marino, the great football player,
Speaker 1: how he went to the Super Bowl, maybe it was second,
Speaker 1: first or second year planning in NFL, and uh, like
Speaker 1: he never made it back again. And those things happen,
Speaker 1: and you know, maybe maybe those I don't think that's
Speaker 1: gonna happen to the Celtics, but I think they're going
Speaker 1: to happen. Have to tweak their their team some to
Speaker 1: find some other guys who want to be able to
Speaker 1: score the basketball. Thing I love about the Warriors just
Speaker 1: watching the way they moved the ball, man, you know
Speaker 1: that that was that was amazing to me to watched
Speaker 1: him come off to those picks and you know, the
Speaker 1: ball never stopped. And with the Celtics, several times Jason
Speaker 1: Tatum was in a predicament where he had the ball
Speaker 1: and and that was one of that was the Achilles
Speaker 1: here Jason Tatum and they in in the playoffs this year.
Speaker 1: Broker record, Uh, he had a hundred turnovers. A hundred
Speaker 1: turnovers for one person. That's a lot of turnovers when
Speaker 1: you think about you know, you played. I think he
Speaker 1: played fourteen twenty four games. So you do the math.
Speaker 1: How much says that about turning over the game? Five? Two?
Speaker 1: Over the game and you you're not gonna win, you know,
Speaker 1: at that pace if you turn over. So he has
Speaker 1: to get better at that position. Yeah, but I definitely
Speaker 1: feel like he's gonna he's definitely the top five player
Speaker 1: and he's gonna end up being, you know, one of
Speaker 1: these guys that we're gonna, you know, talk about and
Speaker 1: holding high esteem. As far as in the history of
Speaker 1: the league, I haven't seen a young guy. I love
Speaker 1: his pois. Um That's that's the one thing I've always said.
Speaker 1: He's fearless to me. I mean, sure he played bad
Speaker 1: and he turned it over, but you know it wasn't
Speaker 1: for a lack of effort, or it wasn't for a
Speaker 1: lack of trying. Um Man, Max, this conversation has been awesome,
Speaker 1: my man. I truly appreciate you coming through. Um the
Speaker 1: book is out. If these walls could talk and you
Speaker 1: you're still on Celtics broadcast right the radio? Yeah, I've been.
Speaker 1: I've been broadcasting for the Selviic. This is my twenties
Speaker 1: six year doing radio for the Selving. So I've been
Speaker 1: around a long time to see a lot of different
Speaker 1: things happened, and I think probably losing to the Goost
Speaker 1: and State Warriors and and to um uh Steph watching
Speaker 1: what he did and Draymond watching what he did probably
Speaker 1: was one of the most disappointing times. So I think
Speaker 1: I've been around. Yeah, well, brother, I appreciate you, and
Speaker 1: good luck moving forward. Everybody out there, go buy the book.
Speaker 1: You won't to be disappointed, Ladies and gentlemen. Cedric Maxwell,
Speaker 1: I alright, my brother, thanks for having me