It might surprise some younger fans to learn that the tenures of Boston Celtics Hall of Famers “Pistol” Pete Maravich and Larry Bird overlapped for a season on the storied franchise both played for, Maravich signing on for a swan song to his storied career just as The Hick From French Lick’s got started in the 1979-80 NBA season.
And as is not that unusual, the two basketball legends butted heads a bit at first, going at it in the heat of a game after a play did not go the way one thought it ought to according to teammate and Boston legend in his own right Cedric Maxwell.
Speaking to NBC Sports Boston about a recent on-court kerfuffle between the Miami Heat’s Erik Spoelstra, Jimmy Butler, and Udonis Haslem, Maxwell recalled a similar incident going down between Bird and Maravich.
This is every player in Boston’s history who wore the Celtics’ No. 11 jersey for at least one game. https://t.co/oPNawaprlZ
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) November 8, 2022
Per Cornbread, Maravich passed to Bird as the future star found himself quickly double-teamed.
“We come to the timeout, and Pete Maravich says to Larry, ‘Larry, Larry, they’re double-teaming you,” said Maxwell. “‘You can’t force up those kind of shots.’ Larry looks up and goes, ‘If you were any damn good, they wouldn’t be double-teaming me.'”
“This is one Hall of Famer to another,” he added. “I was in shock.”
It was a flashbulb moment for the ages. https://t.co/AxJ9oqcubZ
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) November 8, 2022
“Later, they talked and worked it out. Guys get into each other’s face all the time, but it’s not as public as that was,” continued Maxwell, referring to the Heat kerfuffle.
“You’ll see that all the time with players, especially if you’re competitive.”
Most Hall of Famers are by nature, and while Spoelstra may be headed to Springfield at the end of his coaching career, we have to imagine it was a shock of an entirely different order for Maxwell to have witnessed.
It shook him up enough that his mother Brandy Cole also let the teacher in charge of the classroom know just what she thought about their reaction to the teasing. https://t.co/wDxwwFiio6
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) November 8, 2022
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