#31 Cedric Maxwell, “Cornbread,” Forward, 1977-1985
Born in Kinston, North Carolina in 1955, Cedric Maxwell attended the University of North Carolina at Charlotte from 1973 to ‘77, where he was a Third Team All-American and the Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year as a senior, and his number “33” was retired by the school. Maxwell was drafted 12th overall by the Boston Celtics in 1977, and joined a team going through a rough patch.
Although they’d won a championship just two years before, the Celtics were aging in ‘77-78, which was John Havlicek’s last season in the league. Things went from bad to worse in ‘78-79, with the Celtics missing the playoffs for the second straight year and winning just 29 games. Despite their poor record, Maxwell had a career year, averaging close to 20 points and ten rebounds per game.
Things turned around sharply in ‘79-80 with the addition of Larry Bird, and got even better the next year with Robert Parish coming from the Golden State Warriors and Kevin McHale being drafted third overall.They went on to win the championship that year against the Houston Rockets, and Maxwell’s career reached its pinnacle as he was named MVP of the 1981 NBA Finals. Maxwell averaged 17.7 points, 9.5 rebounds and a blocked shot on 57% shooting in the series.
After a poor showing in the ‘83 playoffs, the Celtics were champions again in 1984, beating their arch rivals, the Los Angeles Lakers. Maxwell played a key role in this victory as well, as he and teammate M. L. Carr successfully got in the heads of the Lakers, especially their young forward, James Worthy. Cedric told his teammates to “climb on my back” before game seven and proceeded to score 24 points to go with 8 assists and 8 rebounds in the clincher.
He played only 57 games in the ‘84-85 season due to a knee injury, losing his spot as a starter to Kevin McHale. The Celtics made it back to the finals in ‘85, but lost to the Lakers in six games, with Maxwell playing only five of the six games at an average of less than ten minutes per game. In the 1985 off-season, Maxwell was traded along with a draft pick to the Los Angeles Clippers for veteran center Bill Walton. In early 1987, the Clippers traded Maxwell to the Rockets in exchange for two draft picks. Maxwell retired after the ‘87-88 season, having scored over ten thousand points and grabbed over 5,000 rebounds in his career.
He currently sits at ninth all-time among Celtics players in blocked shots and 17th all time in points. His career highs include 19 points and 9.9 rebounds per game in ‘78-79, and shooting a league leading 61% from the field in ‘79-80, the second straight year he’d led the league in shooting. He scored a career high 35 points in a January 1979 loss to the Kansas City Kings. Maxwell currently lives in Massachusetts and is the long-time radio voice of the Celtics on WBZ in Boston and is a frequent contributor on the Boston sports station WEEI. In 2003, Cedric Maxwell’s number “31” was retired by the Boston Celtics.
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