Does Larry Bird Not Want to Reunite With His Former Boston Celtics Teammates?
Larry Bird was the leader of the Boston Celtics dynasty of the 1980s. He won three straight MVPs and guided the Celtics to three championships in the decade. He goes down as one of the top two players in franchise history and is arguably a top-five player of all time.
Recently, on the Cedric Maxwell Podcast, Maxwell, Bird’s former teammate, stated he spoke with former Detroit Pistons enforcer Rick Mahorn, who talked about teams having reunions. He said the Pistons had one and suggested the Celtics should, but then implied that Bird might not want that to happen.
Cedric Maxwell felt like Larry Bird and some teammates turned on him after his injury
Cedric Maxwell won two championships with the Boston Celtics and was named MVP of the 1981 NBA Finals. In February 1985, he tore cartilage in his knee and had surgery. His original timetable for return was four weeks, but he remained out much longer. In his book, If These Walls Could Talk, Maxwell said that injury seemed to create a problem with his teammates.
“Once I got hurt, everything changed, especially my relationship with the team and my teammates,” Maxwell wrote. “It was a really eye-opening experience for me. It started from the top with (Red) Auerbach. He’d make comments about how he didn’t think I was working hard enough to come back and how my motivation wasn’t the same because I was making some money.”
Maxwell said Bird and some other teammates felt the same way.
“(Bird) and some of my teammates felt like I didn’t want to come back,” he said. “That really hurt me. Here’s a guy I grew up with and won championships with. So, yeah, that stung. That was probably my lowest moment — just being hurt and people not understanding I was hurt.”
Would Bird join a Celtics reunion?
During Maxwell’s podcast, Maxwell spoke about having Mahorn on as a previous guest. He said it was Mahorn who began talking reunions.
“He said the three teams that need to have a reunion would be the Celtics, the Lakers, and the Pistons,” Maxwell told co-host Josue Pavon on the Cedric Maxwell Podcast. “The Pistons had one. The Lakers (didn’t). He then went on and said the Bulls should definitely have one, but he said their two best players don’t get along.
“Then he made a point of saying, ‘Why don’t the Celtics have one? Then he chimed in and said, ‘Maybe because their best player, Larry Bird, doesn’t want to talk to any of them.’
“I don’t know if that’s true. I would hope that Larry feels a certain way about us. You win multiple championships with the guys, it’s hard to dislike the people that you played with.”
Pavon jumped in and said he believes Bird is a guy who likes to keep to himself and believes people take that personally. He said Bird is just someone who probably thinks no reunion is necessary. Pavon then asked Maxwell if he took that as him not liking his former teammates.
“I don’t know,” Max admitted. “I guess I’ve been together with a bunch of those guys, and we all are clamoring, I think, to get together. Everybody pretty much I talk to, Robert Parish, Kevin McHale, M.L. Carr, Nate Archibald, and Gerald Henderson — a lot of people are clamoring to just get together.”
“
