June 22, 1985
Section: SPORTS
Here is what's happening with Cedric Maxwell : The Celtics are disowning him. Cutting him out of the will. Taking his picture off the mantelpiece. If this were the Soviet Union, someone would be hard at work expunging his name from all box scores, game stories, features and books involving the Celtics.
This has nothing to do with Bill Walton; his is an entirely separate matter. It is amazingly coincidental that Walton plays for the Clippers. Red Auerbach knew what he wanted to do with Maxwell long before he became aware that the big redhead was making goo-goo eyes at Boston.
No, the issue is Cedric Maxwell. He has sinned, and he must be punished. Or so the Celtics seem to think.
Cedric Maxwell has been a bad boy; there isn't much doubt about that. But the way the Celtics are acting you'd think he was the only reason why the team didn't win the championship. The last time I looked, Larry Bird was shooting like Jim Loscutoff and the backcourt was clanking up a 6-for-31 finale. Ray Williams was sleeping with the fishes (in K.C.'s mind, anyway). And, uh, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was sinking hook shots from Leverett Circle. Sure, not having Maxwell hurt the Celtics, but making him the scapegoat - which is precisely what they are doing - is insulting to our intelligence, and ultimately harmful to the organization.
I repeat: Max was a bad boy, and the team does have a right to be angry. All the evidence suggests that he did not work as hard as he could have, and certainly should have, to rehabilitate his left knee following the surgery performed by Dr. Robert Leach in February 1985.
Section: SPORTS
Here is what's happening with Cedric Maxwell : The Celtics are disowning him. Cutting him out of the will. Taking his picture off the mantelpiece. If this were the Soviet Union, someone would be hard at work expunging his name from all box scores, game stories, features and books involving the Celtics.
This has nothing to do with Bill Walton; his is an entirely separate matter. It is amazingly coincidental that Walton plays for the Clippers. Red Auerbach knew what he wanted to do with Maxwell long before he became aware that the big redhead was making goo-goo eyes at Boston.
No, the issue is Cedric Maxwell. He has sinned, and he must be punished. Or so the Celtics seem to think.
Cedric Maxwell has been a bad boy; there isn't much doubt about that. But the way the Celtics are acting you'd think he was the only reason why the team didn't win the championship. The last time I looked, Larry Bird was shooting like Jim Loscutoff and the backcourt was clanking up a 6-for-31 finale. Ray Williams was sleeping with the fishes (in K.C.'s mind, anyway). And, uh, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was sinking hook shots from Leverett Circle. Sure, not having Maxwell hurt the Celtics, but making him the scapegoat - which is precisely what they are doing - is insulting to our intelligence, and ultimately harmful to the organization.
I repeat: Max was a bad boy, and the team does have a right to be angry. All the evidence suggests that he did not work as hard as he could have, and certainly should have, to rehabilitate his left knee following the surgery performed by Dr. Robert Leach in February 1985.
The Celtics wanted to know why it was that Denver's Lafayette Lever was able to score 22 points against the Lakers 13 days following arthroscopic knee surgery while Maxwell was essentially useless four months following the most minor knee operation imaginable, an operation Max' agent Ron Grinker admits was described as "probably done more for psychological reasons than anything else." Then why did Max miss almost the entire playoffs claiming that he hadn't yet recovered from minor knee surgery four months earlier? Only Max himself knows. Veteran Max-watchers, meanwhile, can say that his lack of rehabilitation diligence was totally predictable.
The dissatisfaction with Max began a lot earlier than February 1985. He waltzed through the 1982-83 season (the year he refused to talk with the press), before making a major comeback in 1983-84, which, it must be pointed out, was the last year of his old contract. There was a lengthy contract negotiation, which culminated in his missing the entire '84 training camp. When he did report, he was, as always, not in good shape. In years past it didn't matter because Max was Max, and everyone was willing to take the entire complex package.
But this time things were different. Now he was making $800,000, and management and teammates alike expected a more professional approach. Max was on trial, both with his teammates and with his coach. Said Grinker: "K.C. has never been the same to him since he came in late." The players got tired of waiting for Max to make a contribution. Maxwell never really got his peculiar act together, and in time the players started to question his motivation. "I don't know what's wrong with Max," a prominent Celtic confided in January, "but he just doesn't seem to want to play for us any more."
The dissatisfaction with Max began a lot earlier than February 1985. He waltzed through the 1982-83 season (the year he refused to talk with the press), before making a major comeback in 1983-84, which, it must be pointed out, was the last year of his old contract. There was a lengthy contract negotiation, which culminated in his missing the entire '84 training camp. When he did report, he was, as always, not in good shape. In years past it didn't matter because Max was Max, and everyone was willing to take the entire complex package.
But this time things were different. Now he was making $800,000, and management and teammates alike expected a more professional approach. Max was on trial, both with his teammates and with his coach. Said Grinker: "K.C. has never been the same to him since he came in late." The players got tired of waiting for Max to make a contribution. Maxwell never really got his peculiar act together, and in time the players started to question his motivation. "I don't know what's wrong with Max," a prominent Celtic confided in January, "but he just doesn't seem to want to play for us any more."
[BLOGGER COMMENT: anyone want to wager a guess what number this "prominent Celtic" wore?]
Other Celtics insisted Maxwell quit playing long before he negotiated a new contract. "Against the good teams, Maxwell usually came to play." one teammate said, "But let's just say he didn't put forth the same level of effort against the rest of the NBA."
Red Auerbach has been incensed.
"When I read that stuff about him accusing us of racism [for requesting that Maxwell go to rookie camp but not Bird or McHale], that was the end for me," said Auerbach. "I can't believe Max. Here is a guy we draft No. 1, bring him along, take care of him. I liked the guy. So last year I go to bat for him again with the owners. I give him more money than he deserved, but I felt it was the right thing to do.
"What does he do? He stops playing. The year before, when he was going for a new contract, his knee was just as sore and he had a hell of a year. Playing for the contract. Last season he stops playing. He has time after his operation to rehabilitate himself and come back to play, and he doesn't do it. When we could use him in the playoffs, he isn't around. He fooled me, he really did. But it's like the old saying goes: Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me."
5 comments:
I always heard rumblings of Red "disowning" Max and never knew why. Thanks!
What I don't understand is why the Celtics wouldn't have traded max after his 'get on my back, boys' game 7 performance. As the article pointed out, this was all part of the package so to speak but, '81 playoff MVP aside which belongs to Bird quite honestly, his value as a player was never higher. Why not use that and do a sign and trade with the clippers for Walton a season earlier? He was a free agent, his minutes played in 84-85 were the same as in 86 albeit for much longer stretches, and The Chief was a year younger, so he would've only been needed for 16-18 minutes a game. Bc of max's value at the time, the Celtics would not have had to part with a first rounder in the 86 draft to complete the deal, which could've yielded Mark Price! Again, all of this is 20/20, but it's interesting to ponder. I mean, let's not kid ourselves. The Celtics were very lucky in many ways to win the title in 84, mostly bc kc Jones was a complete moron. What better way to enhance your chances of repeating than adding Walton? Sign ray williams in the summer after you've traded Henderson, and then add downtown Freddy Brown and Seen Nater (who were both free agents at the time and nater had played with Walton at UCLA) to your roster and suddenly you've got an awesome bench of: Walton, Nater, Wedman, Fred Brown, and Ray Williams, not to mention Roy Hinson if we had only asked for the bucks' 1st round choice in the 83 draft instead of Quinn Buckner. Just my observations.
Yeah, red missed out on that one
81 mvp is rightfully Max's...and Celts don't beat Lakers in '84 without him. And Max couldve arguably won that MVP too. Enuf with the 2nd guessing...the league was different back then..Max was a super player for the Celts aside for '85. Plus if we trade him after the '81 finals...then hes not able to be traded for Walton and we don't get that incredible '86 team.
Right about 1,984 K C Jones. Waiting until the absolute latest he could in the Final Series - losing at halftime of game 4 while behind 2 games to 1 in the series - to admit that his (seemingly) incomprehensively incompetent decision to guard 6'-8" Magic Johnson with 6'-1" Gerald Henderson instead of 6'-4" defensive specialist Dennis Johnson, is going to lose a very winnable series, then winning the second half of game four, and two of the last three games, to win the series 4 games to 3 instead of 4 to 2 or 4 to 1 as it could, would, should have been won, is as close as I've seen a coach come to intentionally throwing a series and season away and proving himself to be an anchor around his team's neck. When Seattle gave him so much money to control that team, it was obviously another case of someone being handed an already profitable company, nearly destroying it, then having the idiots running an already struggling company give him a large pay raise to come and destroy that second company. Because he'd previously operated a thriving company. Which was already thriving when it was handed to him, and which he'd made worse. That had disaster written all over it the day it began. As I've heard said numerous times, you have to go to business school to learn to be that incompetent.
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