In a War of Words, He’s Boston’s Most Voluble Player : Maxwell Is Utter Magic for Celtics

The Boston Celtics swore the Eastern Conference championship series wasn’t going to deteriorate into a war of words.

Who do you think we’re playing, Kevin McHale wanted to know when talking to reporters last week, Cleveland? Detroit? The Lakers? No, he said, the Celtics have too much respect for the Philadelphia 76ers to try to start something with them.

That lasted as long as the Celtics were winning the first three games. As soon as the 76ers won a game Sunday, the Celtics’ mouthpiece, Cedric Maxwell, could contain himself no longer.

Call the priest, he said, because there’s going to be a “mercy killing” when the 76ers come to Boston for Game 5.

On Monday, Philadelphia’s Charles Barkley, who neither plays nor talks like a rookie, returned the fire.

“Ain’t no mercy killing,” he said. “Him trying to play defense on somebody is mercy. He can’t move.”

Your serve, Cedric.

“I’ve got one thing to say,” Maxwell said Tuesday.

When Maxwell says he has one thing to say, get ready for a filibuster.

Gentlemen, start your pens.

“Barkley’s like a man going to the electric chair,” Maxwell said. “He’ll say anything. It doesn’t matter what they’re saying. It doesn’t matter if they’re guilty or innocent. They’re condemned. They’ve got a couple of minutes to live, and they’re looking at the clock.”

Above the fray stood Philadelphia’s Moses Malone, putting Maxwell’s comments in perspective.

“Bench talk,” he said. “That’s why he ain’t playing.”

When Game 5 begins tonight at Boston Garden, Maxwell indeed will be on the bench. Perhaps at some juncture, he will be there even when he should be on the court.

Maxwell was supposed to be the Celtics’ power forward when the fourth quarter began in Game 4 Sunday at the Spectrum. But because of a failure to communicate, he watched along with everyone else on the bench as the Celtics played the first 21 seconds with only four men.

Forty-eight hours later, he had thought of an excuse.

He blamed it on Larry Bird. Maxwell said Bird told him he was entering the game in his place, when Bird actually was replacing guard Dennis Johnson.

“Don’t blame it on me,” Bird said when he heard that. “Blame it on brain lock. I’m going to give him a calculator so he can count to five next time.”

Bird didn’t stop there.

“While I’m at it,” he said, “I’d better get him a stopwatch.”

He was referring to Maxwell’s first blunder Sunday, when he dribbled out the final seven seconds of the first quarter, saying later he thought there were 30 seconds remaining.

Maxwell said Tuesday his performance in Game 4 should be titled, “The Divine Comedy.”

Actually, Maxwell’s most significant contribution to the Celtics during the entire playoffs has been comic relief.

As he said, “My career has turned into sentences instead of points.”

Overhearing Maxwell talking to reporters was his mouthmate, M. L. Carr.

“If we needed entertainment, we’d get Phil Donahue,” Carr said. “We need a basketball player.”

Maxwell, an eight-year veteran, would be only too pleased to fill that role if not for an injured left knee, which required arthroscopic surgery on Feb. 20. He was reactivated a month later and since has played a limited role as a backup power forward to McHale, averaging 10 minutes a game in this series.

Asked if felt Maxwell was playing at 60% to 70% of his pre-injury capacity, Celtic Coach K.C. Jones said, “Thereabouts.”

Maxwell was more specific.

“Fifty-three percent,” he said. “That’s a nice round number.”

But the Celtics still feel Maxwell is valuable.

“Max gets everybody fired up,” McHale said. “Wars of words don’t win games. But he gets other teams saying things, which gets us stirred up. We seem to play better when there’s animosity.”

Some teams won’t fall for it, Carr said.

But other teams do.

“As good a club as L.A. was last year, it had an effect on them,” he said.

McHale elaborated.

“We said they were all flash,” he said. “So they came out and tried to play a different style, and it hurt their game.”

Before Game 7 of the championship series last year, Maxwell told his teammates, “Jump on my back, and I’ll carry you.”

With 22 points and 8 assists from Maxwell, the Celtics beat the Lakers, 111-102.

Reminded of that Tuesday, Maxwell said, “I’m a young Muhammad Ali.”

Asked if he hires a writer, he said, “Yeah, a guy who works on ‘The Gong Show.’ ”

Two years ago, when a Boston newspaper reported news of a paternity suit against Maxwell, he announced he would not to talk to the press for the entire season.

“That should last about two weeks,” a reporter told him.

Hearing that, Maxwell felt challenged. He kept his word, also his words.

“Some people said I was anti-social,” he said. “But at that point in my career, I was making a stand against an invasion of privacy.

“A paternity suit and the amount of money I have to pay is not a basketball-related incident. My life on the court is an open book, but we all need some space away from basketball. If we have personal problems, I don’t want to see them in big print.

“My home (Kinston, N.C.) has 22,000 people. This was not a quiet thing down there, but an international incident. It was bigger than the war in El Salvador. It was bigger than Ronald Reagan, bigger than the election and everything else that year. I don’t want my life to be like that.”

His point made, he resumed talking the next year, which was a relief for the reporters who cover the Celtics and him.

He said he didn’t enjoy the quiet life.

“I didn’t play with too much compassion that year,” he said. “I felt like I didn’t have anybody else to play for. I played for myself. I’ve gotten over that.”

His only regret now, he said, is that he probably never will be recognized for his basketball skills.

“I’ve said a few things here and there,” he said, giving himself far too little credit. “But in the last three years, I’ve gotten more attention for the things I’ve said than the way I’ve played. I’ve played better than I’ve talked. But people like to read the papers to see what I say.”

In another part of the gym, Carr was holding court with reporters, telling them they shouldn’t write off Julius Erving because he’s had a couple of bad games.

A question came from the back of the pack.

“Does your heart bleed for him?”

It was Maxwell.

“You’ll be going back to Philly if that’s how you feel,” Maxwell said.

Eastern Conference Notes

Tired of being badgered about the effect a sprained index finger on his right hand has on his shooting, Larry Bird challenged the Boston Globe’s Dan Shaughnessy to a free-throw shooting contest after practice Tuesday. To further handicap himself, Bird volunteered to tape all of the fingers on his right hand together, including the thumb. He still made 86 of 100 free throws, to 54 of 100 for Shaughnessy. Since each paid the other $5 a miss, Shaughnessy ended up owing Bird $160. . . . Even though the swelling has gone down considerably, Bird taped the index finger and his middle finger together during practice. But he said he will play without the tape tonight. “Shooters don’t like the feel of the tape,” he said. . . . Philadelphia Coach Billy Cunningham said forward Charles Barkley probably will remain in the starting lineup in place of Bobby Jones. . . . On the 76ers’ continued use of the 6-6 Barkley against 7-foot Robert Parish, Kevin McHale said, “He’s not going to be able to guard Robert in 1,000 years. You can’t put a guy 6-6 on a guy 7 feet. It doesn’t make any sense to me.” . . . Cedric Maxwell said he wasn’t impressed with Barkley’s 15-point, 20-rebound performance in Game 4. “I was talking to a guy who was telling me that Barkley is dominating,” Maxwell said. “‘Yeah,’ I said, ‘that’s why they’re down, 3-1, right now,”’ . . . Maxwell said Barkley tries to do too much by himself. “If a guy wants to challenge you one-on-one,” Maxwell said, “he should play Ping-Pong.”