Boston Celtics legends, Larry Bird and Cedric Maxwell have had a perplexing relationship since the mid 80’s. Winning two titles together in 1981 and 1984, Bird, Parish and Maxwell could easily have been the ‘original big three’ of Boston basketball. In 1985, four years removed from winning the NBA Finals MVP and 1 year removed from putting his teammates ‘on his back’ in game seven vs the dreaded LA Lakers, Red Auerbach shipped a banged up and disgruntled Maxwell out and brought Bill Walton in. What many don’t know is that the Celtics had to have Maxwell’s approval to make the trade with the Clippers work. What many more don’t know is that Max approving that trade didn’t only send him off the Basketball hell in 1985 (the Clippers) but is also cost him a very lucrative shoe deal and thus over a million dollars in endorsement money. Max approved the trade anyway, Walton came to Boston to set up the 85-86 epic championship sweet sixteen season for the Celtics.

In the meantime, while the Celtics contended for titles throughout the remainder of the 80’s, Cedric Maxwell languished in obscurity out west. Max had teamed up with former teammate, Don Chaney (now Clippers coach) and contributed a 10 and 10 season in 85-86 but never really made is back to his MVP form. Eventually being traded to the Houston Rockets, Max showed moments of his old self but had been mainly a 8th or 9th man, eventually getting cut from the roster and retiring from the NBA.

While Larry’s careen ended with much more celebration, pomp, circumstance and, well... legend, he eventually left Boston for the coaching and eventual front office role in Indiana, rarely to return to Boston for business, basketball or personal reasons.

In a shocking turn of events, the once very publicly jaded Cornbread Maxwell, actually returned to Boston in the mid/late 90’s as their radio analyst, had his jersey retired and is now widely considered the one Celtics’ legend that spans the generations from Coach Tommy Heihnson to Bird, Parish and Mchale and eventually Coach ML Carr, Rick Pitino, Doc Rivers and now calling out names like Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown on his game night broadcasts with Sean Grande.

Time heals wounds, right? Not in this case.

Nearly 40 years have passed and the once ‘twin towers of the paint’ in Boston, have still not cleared the air or mended fences. It’s said Bird holds grudges from what he perceived was Cedric ‘quitting’ on their 1985 team (Maxwell was actually very seriously injured). But Bird has not made many public comments about Maxwell at all. It’s almost as if the two never combined to make the NBA’s best front line with Robert Parish and enabling Kevin McHale to dominate the 6th man position.

Maxwell on the other hand, has always been outspoken and though slightly more measured than usual when it comes to his tense relationship with Larry Legend, he still has spoken out more than once, including calling Kevin Garnett ‘the best all-around Celtics.’