It wasn’t just a tough for Celtics fans to watch the team’s embarrassing effort in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals against the Miami Heat. It seems the no-show from the Celtics also struck a nerve with the organization’s upper management.
While a video circulated of Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck appearing to tell head coach Joe Mazzulla along the sideline to pull the starters in the lopsided defeat, Celtics great and the team’s radio broadcast color commentator Cedric Maxwell fueled another rumor.
Maxwell told 98.5 The Sports Hub’s “Toucher and Rich” show Tuesday that he heard members of upper management had conversations with Celtics players following the Game 3 loss.
“No, I haven’t seen any of that (video), you know. I’ve heard that different things happened after the game,” Maxwell said. “There were some exchanges. But, you know, I just think that Wyc and everybody else wants to win and they were embarrassed.”
Maxwell didn’t go into detail about the “exchanges” he heard about, but it couldn’t have been a comfortable encounter given how the game played out, which led to another former Celtics players saying the team “quit” on Mazzulla.
“I just heard that there was just a run-in between people in upper management and with the players,” Maxwell said. “I don’t know any more than that. That’s a rumor that came through, but it didn’t really matter about that. But with Wyc and what happened with them, it was more about what the players did on the floor and how they responded.”
With Boston’s season stunningly on the brink of coming to an end to the eighth-seeded Heat, the Celtics have faced an onslaught of criticism to go along with reports of a disconnect on the team.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowksi reported Monday night that Celtics players “never got over” the dismissal of former head coach Ime Udoka after he was suspended by the team for violations of team policies right before training camp. And the Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor said prior to Tuesday’s Game 4 that he heard from a source within the past week that told him the Celtics are “tired of fake liking each other.”
Maxwell’s rumors just continue the downward spiral the Celtics are currently caught in, and it could get worse if the Celtics don’t find a way to stop the implosion in Game 4.
