Morning Briefing : Just Call Maxwell Pac-Man

After last month’s 107-97 upset of the Boston Celtics in Boston Garden, Tom Chambers of the Seattle SuperSonics offered the opinion that the Sonics matched up well against the Celtics.

That didn’t set well with Boston’s Cedric Maxwell. In a rematch Thursday night at Seattle, Maxwell came out smoking. He scored 18 points in the first 23 minutes and the Celtics won, 110-94.

Said Maxwell afterward: “Chambers said after the first game that he could do this or do that. Well, you don’t say that about someone who can play. I was eating him up like Pac-Man, eating him alive, gobble, gobble.”

Bridgeport University basketball Coach Bruce Webster, on 7-6 center Mamute Bol: “It’s like in the E. F. Hutton ads. Everbody stops when they see Manute. The other day a cab driver was so distracted he drove over the curb at LaGuardia Airport.”

How-times-have-changed dept.: In 1966, the total payroll of the Lakers was $240,000. Today, half the players in the NBA earn that much or more.

CBS analyst Tom Heinsohn, on Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: “He is the most amazing 37-year-old I’ve ever seen. He is playing with the enthusiasm of a rookie. He’s even developed some new moves in the last two years. I don’t think Kareem wants to retire--ever.”

Says Kareem: “When I was at UCLA I wasn’t as thorough about my conditioning. But now I know more about myself and how to train. I have probably never been in better physical condition.”

From St. Louis Manager Whitey Herzog: “I’ll tell you this, Jack Clark will do more offensively for the Cardinals than Gary Carter will do for the Mets. Last year, we were not a good offensive ballclub. Jack Clark makes us one.

“I classify Jack Clark as one of the best young aggressive hitters I’ve seen since I’ve come over to the National League. Ozzie Smith said it best when he said that Jack Clark hits the ball so hard it’s by you before you can field it.”

Numbers game: Richard Lapchick, sports research director at Northeastern University, told USA Today: “The odds are better for blacks to become a doctor or a lawyer than an athlete. It’s 12,000-to-1 they can make it as a professional athlete, compared to 10,500-to-1 against becoming a doctor or lawyer.”

Lefty Driesell keeps failing to win his 500th game. Then he keeps saying he doesn’t want to talk about it. Then he keeps talking about it.

Said the Maryland coach after Wednesday night’s loss to North Carolina: “Hey, I told you I don’t care about 500. So please don’t bring it up. Would you do me a favor, all right? I don’t care about 500, man. I feel like a dawg right now, like I ain’t never won a game, so I ain’t worried about 500. I’m just worried about beatin’ Clemson. They ain’t gonna give me no raise for winnin’ 500. They ain’t gonna give me no house . No car. If they were, then I’d wanna win 500. But I don’t think I’m gonna get anything extra--do you? Hey, I ain’t heard no rumors about it. So if they tell me that, then I’ll really get after it. Otherwise, it’s just another ball game.”

Of course, Lefty.

Low Blow Dept.: Said Ray Mancini of his fight against Livingstone Bramble: “Saturday night you’ll see everything I have.”

Wrote Rich Tosches of UPI: “Most observers saw everything Mancini had in the first fight, including a lot of his blood.”

Quotebook

Livingstone Bramble, calling himself a vegetarian but saying of Ray Mancini: “If he doesn’t act right, I’ll bite his goddam ears off.”