Was Worthy's Foul Worse than McHale's?

1984 NBA Finals

Laker coach Pat Riley didn't think James Worthy's first-quarter shove of Cedric Maxwell was equal to Kevin McHale's clothesline tackle of Kurt Rambis in Game 4.

After the McHale-Rambis incident, Riley said it was the cheapest shot he'd ever seen and labeled the Celtics "thugs." Riley went so far as to say, "One of my players wouldn't do something like that."

Riley termed Worthy's play yesterday "a hard foul," but he added, "I don't think what he did to Max was anything near what McHale did to Kurt. He (Worthy) didn't grab him around the neck and throw him to the floor. But that's history. Why talk about history?"

"It (Worthy's play) was worse than what Kevin did," countered Celtics general manager Red Auerbach. "At least their guy (Rambis) saw our guy coming. Max couldn't see anything coming today."

"It just shows you how this game changes people," said Maxwell. " . . . But as long as they're able to dish it out and take it, that's fine."

"We're not going to go crazy about that," said McHale. "You won't hear us start calling them thugs."