Draymond Green and Cedric Maxwell have begun an unexpected feud in the NBA Finals.
Since Game 2, Green and Maxwell have exchanged words in the media about the present NBA and the league’s prior period. According to Maxwell, the NBA used to be a lot more physical. Green, on the other hand, thinks the entire argument is ridiculous.
Here’s a quick rundown of Green and Maxwell’s verbose battle.
Cedric Maxwell, who is he?
Cedric Maxwell is a Celtics legend in his own right.
He was a part of the Celtics’ 1981 and 1984 championship teams and played for them from 1977 to 1985. Maxwell was even named Finals MVP in 1981, and the Celtics retired his No. 31 in 2003.
As the team’s radio analyst, Maxwell currently provides color analysis during Celtics games. He’s held the position since 2001.
Cedric Maxwell had something to say about Draymond Green.
Following Game 2, Maxwell and NBA great Gary Payton discussed Green’s brief altercation with Jaylen Brown, which almost resulted in technical fouls. Maxwell was taken aback by the whole thing.
Because, according to Maxwell, Green would have been knocked out for his acts in his day.
This is what he said about Green:
“Let me just say this to you, and I am going to be as clear as I can. That [expletive] Draymond was doing? During the 1980s, he’d got knocked the [expletive] out.”
How did he respond to Cedric Maxwell, this is what did Draymond Green said?
Green was enraged by Maxwell’s statement. In fact, it enraged him to the point where he went on a long-winded diatribe in a press conference before Game 3 on Tuesday.
Here’s a video of Green’s three-minute monologue:
“No, I think it just comes from growing up in Saginaw, playing at Vets Park, playing at the Civitan Recreation Center. Obviously, growing up I watched guys like Gary Payton, Rasheed Wallace. I watched all those guys and how they went about their business. Dennis Rodman. Seeing those guys over the years, and I have a huge appreciation for Uncle Oak, how he enforced things.That’s a part of the game. That is a skill. I have a huge appreciation for those guys. I saw what Cedric Maxwell said.
One thing that baffles me about the ’80s or the ’90s, or whenever you want to call it when basketball was so much more physical, is some of the guys that be talking weren’t the guys that were punching people. They act like guys was just walking around the court, like, I’m hitting this guy in the nose.
There were a few guys back then that would lay you out, that would knock you out, that would foul you and get thrown out the game. Bill Laimbeer. Rick Mahorn. But everybody running around acting like they were that. Y’all were getting bullied. So it baffles me when every guy, just because they played in the ’80s, just because they played in the ’90s, is like, man, if you played in our day, you’d get knocked out. No, not really, because it wouldn’t be you.
Okay, so you’re saying Rick Mahorn would have knocked me out? Rick Mahorn probably knocks you out. Bill Laimbeer probably lays you out. So were there enforcers of that time? Of course. Would they have knocked you out? Of course. Their fine was also $2. It’s just not the same day and age. If I go knock somebody out, I probably get fined a million dollars. It just don’t work the same.
When guys get to making these comparisons or talking about, oh, if you played in this day and age, like yeah. And if you played in this day and age you would have had to be way more skilled than you were. It’s just different.
Comparing the physicality of the game and everybody acting like they were just the most physical and brutal enforcers, it’s like everybody acting like they shoot the ball like Steph Curry today. You know, it’s like then it was physical, now it’s shooting. Everybody can’t shoot the ball. Imagine me in 20 years, like, man, if you played in my day you had to shoot. Like, yeah, guys did shoot better and more. But that don’t mean you shot that well.
So it just baffles me when guys get out here talking and they ain’t got — we got YouTube. You can pull up them highlights and they ain’t got no YouTube fights. You see them on the court getting bullied, but they talking about you ain’t got punched in the face. These people be killing me.”
What did Cedric Maxwell have to say about Draymond Green’s remarks?
Maxwell had a retort to Green’s retort, similar to how people react to reaction films on YouTube.
Then, Maxwell was asked about Green’s comments on NBC Sports Boston on Tuesday night. The former Celtic, like Green, thought the whole back-and-forth entertaining.
Maxwell, on the other hand, gave Green a homework assignment, urging him to “ask your daddy who I was” at the end of the episode.
Here’s Maxwell’s response to Green:
“It’s not about Draymond Green and I. I was just pointing out that in the ’80s, there were some guys like Kermit Washington, there was Hakeem Olajuwon, there were a bunch of guys that were mean tough guys. And a lot of the shenanigans going on in the game right now with Draymond, that wouldn’t have been tolerated during the ’80s. Gary Payton, he identified, he said that.” “I understand what Draymond’s saying. But he keeps saying no one punched nobody. You ask Charles Barkley what happened when he and I got in a fight when I was in LA, with the Clippers.”
“Draymond was even born when I was playing. Let me do the math here. Draymond, ask your daddy who I was.”
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