Gary Sheffield, Jr
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Following Draymond Green’s comments that criticized 80’s and 90’s NBA players saying they weren’t all tough guys, former Celtic and Finals MVP Cedric Maxwell fired back.
“I see Draymond behind me, but don’t act like if this weren’t the 80’s he wouldn’t be knocked out,” Maxwell said during the pregame show.
Kenny Smith would then extend an olive branch by mentioning this is a comparison of eras that clearly have differences. He compared the situation to hockey where certain players are on the team were there to be physical and how that job doesn’t exist today. Draymond’s point yesterday was that basketball governed that job out the NBA utilizing to steeper fines. Technically true, but Cedric Maxwell wasn’t thrilled about that remark.
“Draymond said well if you got thrown out a game during that time, you only could pay two dollars. Well you know what? That’s an insult to anybody that played with me at that particular time because we stood on the shoulders of giants. And the reason he’s making 30 million…he got on my shoulders and somebody else’s shoulders. Don’t be disrespectful. I’m going to quote a famous Chinese philosopher here…Kevin Garnett. He said ‘respect these years.’ There’s only been 32 Finals MVP’s and I’m one of them.”
Plenty to unpack here.
Former Finals MVP Cedric Maxwell responds to Draymond Green’s comments about the physicality of the NBA in the ’80s and ’90s 👀 pic.twitter.com/9xLlbRrBjN
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) June 9, 2022
Cedric Maxwell was a baller. A two-time NBA champion that was MVP of the 1981 NBA Finals. He’s currently serving as a radio analyst for the Boston Celtics that knows about as much as anyone regarding the game of basketball. He played at a dominant level in the 80’s and it’s his job to stay involved enough to cover the present day players. That’s what makes Maxwell the perfect fit for this conversation and why his response left us puzzled.
Draymond Green, while he’s always been annoying, is alluding to the differences between both eras. One era was considered “tough” with zero ramifications for crossing the line physically as opposed to the way the game is governed today. If Draymond Green decided to play Friday’s Game 4 like Bill Laimbeer or Charles Oakley, he wouldn’t touch the floor until next year.
To simplify this: modern day NBA players feel they aren’t receiving credit from old heads and vice versa. Old school ballers watch a player drop 50 points in today’s game and they say ‘we’d knock him to the floor,’ as if that means a player today can’t be better than they were. It’s a way to discredit anything in the present while elevating the glory days. And based on what Draymond said regarding fines, he’s on the money. He exaggerated by saying ‘two dollars,’ but it’s also accurate that fines weren’t steep enough to steer players away from fighting. The NBA hadn’t decided to remove that physical element out the game yet. Is it soft? Yes. But today’s players didn’t change the rules, former commissioner David Stern did.
Does Cedric Maxwell have a reason to be upset with Draymond? Sure. Is it also a little ridiculous listening to people act like basketball players are miraculously worse four decades after the 1981 NBA Finals? Also yes. Both sides don’t want to admit that you can’t compare eras of basketball. Certain players benefited from different styles of play and there’s nothing productive coming from this pissing contest.
Here’s the difference: Previous generations could (assuming we had time machines) play today’s game and be successful under today’s rules. As successful as under the rules they were used to? Maybe not – but Dr. J., Magic, Larry, Michael, Kareem – those guys would still be top players.
Trying to have today’s players compete under previous rules? I just don’t see them being successful.
There’s one more difference between generations, one that Mr. Maxwell alludes to when he says that his generation stood on the shoulders of giants. When you talked to players of that generation, they were clearly in awe of the players who came before them: Your Bill Russells and Wilt Chamberlains and Jerry Wests. They didn’t try to build themselves up by tearing down those who came before, the way a lot of today’s players do.
It’s not just the NBA, either: Across sports, there seems to be both a general lack of knowledge about earlier eras, and a lack of respect. Certainly the sense of awe that Tony Gwynn felt for a Frank Robinson or Henry Aaron or Ted Williams is rarely evident among today’s players. And that was the glue that held sports together – the shared sense of history among fans and players. It feels like the only sports where that still exists are golf, tennis and auto racing – where even your rawest rookies know the lore of their sport, and only want to be good enough to someday be part of that lore. Even your big personalities, like Lewis Hamilton or Novak Djokovic, have so much respect for their sports’ history that it’s contagious.
Oh really? Because not a single player from the past has played under today’s rules. Not only that, but the players from the past can’t just assume they’d learn how to shoot. Skills can’t just be acquired. This isn’t NBA 2K, bud.
So a good player then automatically wouldn’t be good now? Skills can’t be acquired? You must be from the Iverson school of practice.
Not true, Kobe crossed eras and was dominant, scoring 60 as an old man in his last game! And you can’t tell me that with barely any dribbling rules and no handchecking, the past players would not have had it far easier. That makes no sense. The game is wide open now.
Yeah no one watches the chicom league BUD
Not my area of expertise at all … but I betcha Rick Barry, Pete Maravich, Jerry West and Reggie Miller among others could adapt to, and prosper, with the 3 pt line quickly.
Gary, does nobody in the media see the hypocrisy of draymond and his wife playing the victim card for Celtics fans doing “b****” chants within earshot of their children?!?! Did the 2016 NBA finals not happen? Like when Draymond yelled at Lebron calling him a bitch. And he said it so loud the tv broadcast mics as well as fans multiple rows deep could hear. It’s ALMOSY humorous how every news publication is omitting this part in their stories.