Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green has long made headlines for his words and antics rather than his on-court play. Whether it was his suspension from a game in the 2016 NBA Finals, his ejection from a 2022 playoff game against the Memphis Grizzlies or his latest verbal sparring session with [checks notes] Celtics radio broadcaster and 66-year-old former basketball star Cedric Maxwell.
Green and Maxwell’s back and forth stems from the Warriors forward’s play in Game 2 of the NBA Finals. After picking up an early technical foul, Green towed the line throughout the contest and ruffled a lot of feathers along the way. Including Maxwell’s.
“Let me just say this to you, and I am going to be as clear as I can,” Maxwell said in a video speaking to Gary Payton Sr. “That (expletive) Draymond was doing? During the 1980s, he’d got knocked the (expletive) out.”
That drew a response from Draymond Green, who questioned Maxwell’s standing among the hard hitters of the 1980’s.
“One thing that baffles me about the 80’s or the 90’s or whatever you want to call when basketball was so much more physical, is some of the guys that be talking weren’t the guys that was punching people,” Green said in his Tuesday media availability. ” … 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 80’s, just because they played in the 90’s, are like ‘Man if you played in our day, you’d get knocked out!’ Nah, not really cause it wouldn’t be you.”
Those comments, of course, would draw a rebuttal out of Maxwell, who seemed to believe Green didn’t do his research.
“You keep saying nobody punched nobody, you ask Charles Barkley what happened when he and I got in a fight when I was in LA with the Clippers,” Maxwell said on NBC Sports Boston’s ‘BST’. ” … Draymond wasn’t even born when I was playing. Draymond, ask your daddy who I was.”
This verbal sparring certainly isn’t over, as the Celtics and Warriors will play at least three more games to decide their NBA Finals series. You can see if Maxwell’s comments had any effect on Green’s play Wednesday night as the Warriors travel to TD Garden to take on the Celtics. Game 3 is scheduled to tip off at 9 p.m. ET.
