Boston Celtics icon Cedric Maxwell was flying high after an excellent sophomore season in the NBA and was feeling an air of invincibility around him. However, things changed quickly after we went up against a rookie Larry Bird in 1979, who pegged his self-confidence down a notch. Maxwell also had to revise his opinion about racism and white basketball players.
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The two-time NBA champion was recently a guest on a special live edition of Paul Pierce’s Truth Lounge show. After providing an overview of the ongoing NBA Finals, Maxwell spoke about his experience battling Larry Bird in practice for the first time.
When the two forwards lined up against each other in scrimmages, Maxwell, who was averaging nearly 20 points and 10 rebounds at the time, didn’t have a lot of respect for Bird initially. But he learned the hard way that the Celtics had landed a gem.
During the show, the 68-year-old revealed to Paul Pierce and the live studio audience that he wasn’t impressed by the rookie’s playing style and athleticism and expected the battle against him to be one-sided. Maxwell was right about it being lopsided, but wrong about who’d win.
Explaining what transpired, he said,
“I’m looking at him when we have the first practice and thinking, ‘Pshhh. This ought to be a piece of cake.’ Guy don’t look fast, don’t look good. I’m about to do something to him. Boyyyyy, I’m telling you. It changed my opinion about racism in this world.”
“I remember he [Bird] scored the first basket on me, I scored on him. Second basket. But as I proceeded, he kept going further and further away,” the Celtics legend added.
The bludgeoning from Bird prompted Maxwell to revise his dismissive attitude toward white players. In fact, he told anyone who asked about the rookie that he wasn’t a run-of-the-mill player. However, most of the times he’d let people find out for themselves.
In the late 1970s, Bill Walton was the only great white player in the NBA. But that changed with the arrival of Bird in 1979, who won Rookie of the Year and finished fourth in the MVP race. The skill disparity between the two of them and the rest of the Caucasian players in the NBA was so steep, that Bird considered it a slight if an opposing team matched him up against a white player.
Larry Bird did not rate his white peers
During an appearance on the All The Smoke podcast, Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas recalled Larry Bird’s disregard for white players in the league. He said,
“We walk out on the court, and [Larry’s] saying, ‘Who guarding me?’ I was like, you know, we got Kelly [Tripucka], we got [Bill Laimbeer], we got Kent Benson. He is like, ‘You ain’t got no brothers?’ He is like, ‘You’re disrespecting me.’ That is what he said. He is like, ‘You can’t put a white dude on me. That is straight disrespect.’”
The Pistons were a tenacious defensive team and Bill Laimbeer was an excellent enforcer, who built a legacy with his physical playstyle. However, Bird felt otherwise and believed facing him was no challenge. Like many great athletes, the Celtics icon thrived on being tested and did not feel like any white player in the NBA had the chops to beat him.
