Cornbread wants some bacon and eggs

Cedric “Cornbread” Maxwell was a member of the great Celtics’ teams from the 1980s. The 6’8” forward was a first round draft pick in 1977, after leading his Charlotte University to its improbable run of upsets during that spring’s NCAA tournament.

While he was a working class player, content to play defense and rebound, as he was to score, he became known as a clutch playoff performer, winning the NBA’s MVP award for the 1981 finals, when the Celt beat the Moses Malone-led Houston Rockets.

“Max” was known as a colorful character during his eight years in Boston and in 2003, his number “31” was hoisted to the rafters, one of only 22 players in the franchise’s storied history to have that award bestowed upon them.

Maxwell and partner Sean Grande have been the Celtics’ radio team for the past nine years. With Maxwell, as analyst, providing insights from his playing days and occasional quirky observations and Grande’s exceptional skill as play-by-play counterpart, they form a quality team with an obvious chemistry.

On Monday night, Maxwell, as he often does, took exception to a call made against a Boston player. While this in and of itself wasn’t a big deal—the officiating in the top pro league in the world, at best, is suspect. What created the resulting media firestorm was that Maxwell criticized Violet Palmer, a woman of color and an NBA official, with some revealing phraseology.

Here is a paraphrase (from Wikipedia) of Maxwell’s comments about Palmer, in context of Monday’s game:

After a play where Maxwell thought a foul should have been called on a Houston player, he said that Palmer should "go back to the kitchen." He then added, "Go in there and make me some bacon and eggs, would you?".

Supposedly, this was part of Maxwell's mocking Tommy Heinsohn’s (Maxwell’s TV counterpart on FSNE) criticism of referees. Secondly, the sentence after the comment, Maxwell praised Palmer, saying she was doing an excellent job officiating. Maxwell apologized before the Celtics' next game by saying "If I said anything that might have been insensitive or sexist in any way, then I apologize because she worked extremely hard to get where she is now, end of quote."

Maxwell has spent the better part of the week fending off criticism from a variety of sources, including the sports talk fraternity, which its interesting in itself, given that genre's less than flattering takes on the fairer sex.

You see, the world of pro sports and sports in general, is a world where sexism, racism, and outright misogyny is often worn as a badge of honor. In fact, athletics is a bastion of old-school views, particularly towards women, homosexuals and anything smacking of progressivism. While there are certainly exceptions, by-and-large, athletics and enlightened views about the world rarely go hand-in-hand.

Having spent more than my fair share of time in and around sports locker rooms as a player, coach and even journalist, these are not places known for their scintillating conversation and liberal thoughts about society.

Some of my most frustrating moments discussing politics, or culture have come in conversations with young college players that I’ve coached over the past few summers. While there have been exceptions, the general lack of respect that many young males (and older males) have indicated they have for women, homeless people, people of color, gay people and others in conversations that I was privy to, is downright depressing.

I still remember playing semi-pro baseball and hearing a former teammate boast about some of his sexual exploits in college, as a fraternity member, some 10 years earlier at a party, where teammates had drilled a hole in the wall and watched him and others “get it on” with drunk co-eds. Believe me when I tell you, this is no isolated incident, as I could tell you other “horror” stories from my days at the University of Maine. If you're still having doubts, just think Duke lacrosse (a case emblematic of the culture and mindset prevalent in the athletic world).

What was troubling to me was how this person, now a father, took such great relish in telling this story, oblivious to the indignity visited on these women. Oh, I know, I’ve heard it before—because they were drinking, at a frat party and "coming on" to the athletes, they asked for it—yeah right!

By making this comment, regardless of his apology, “Cornbread” was just giving y'all a peek into just how “enlightened” certain elements of the male species are, even in 2007.

In Boston, winning no longer matters

The older you get, the more you become aware of shifts, some glaringly obvious, some more subtle and some that you are aware of, but can’t pinpoint when they occurred. The world of sports is definitely one of those places where changes of seismic proportions have occurred.

When I began adopting teams to bequeath my affection upon, many of these were local. I mostly knew the players and never for the life of me did I ever pour my heart and energy into these surrogates, wishing they would lose. Later, when I started to follow professional sports, I never recall rushing to the kitchen table to scan the previous night’s results in search of the boxscore of my favorite team and I know I never felt joy and happiness wash over me when I saw that they were on the losing end of the tilt with their opponent.

Apparently, however, not only has the world of sports been turned on its head by the large amounts of cashish showered on even marginal talents, but fans no longer grasp that following a team means that you harbor hope (even when it's not reasonable from a mere intellectual standpoint) that they’ll come away with a victory.

While this winter’s version of Boston’s pro basketball team is one of the worst in recent memory, rather than pine for a victory to break a losing string stretching back to just after New Year’s Day, fans, writers and analysts are almost giddy with each mounting loss. I’m sitting here, listening to the drivel that passes as sports talk and even, dare I say, sports journalism and I’m scratching my head—when did it suddenly become fashionable to hope that your team would be a loser? When was the big “L” etched on your forehead a badge of honor and not some equivalent to sport’s scarlet letter?

The sports community, at least in places like Boston and Memphis are no longer interested in seeing elite players named Gasol, or Pierce, carry their teams to victory. They’re not even interested that burgeoning talents like Al Jefferson, Gerald Green, Rajon Rondo, or even Rudy Gay, learn what it takes to win in the world’s elite basketball league, which by the way, is much more intense and difficult than even the top Division I ball played at the college level. Dominating the competition in the Big Ten, or Big 12 doesn’t automatically translate into being able to stop a Shaq, or Koby, or Agent Zero.

Hoping your team will lose, or that your multi-million dollar superstar doesn’t play, so some ping pong ball comes up Celtics' Green is absolutely stupid. I do recognize that some people who follow sports aren’t terribly bright and even some in the sports media also are lacking in intellectual acumen, but enough is enough!

In Boston, at least, Danny Ainge needs to have a strategy beyond accumulating youthful chips with potential and start assembling a team that can compete. The Eastern Conference is weak and a general manager worth his salary would have had a team in place by now that was able to compete and even win 55, or 60 percent of its games in a very weak conference. Instead, we have to witness a debacle like last night’s (which due to FSNE’s ineptness, I missed large portions of, which isn’t the first time—more to follow) loss to a team that was ripe for the picking and should have resulted in being the end to the Celtics’ losing streak. Instead, players were standing around, missing assignments and relying on Paul Pierce, playing his first game in nearly two months. Was Ainge at the game? Is he so inept a general manager, like he was a professional baseball player that he can’t see that he doesn’t have anyone that can carry this team past even weak NBA opponents?

Maybe Boston’s recent championship success has changed the sports landscape in a town that used to hunger for wins. I guess getting off the snide in baseball, as well as the Patriots’ three Super Bowl titles has made losing easier to take. When the media trumpets Boston’s sports pedigree and superior knowledge about whatever sport is being featured, apparently they are just blowing smoke, or relying on a community that no longer exists—that being a cavalcade of knowledgeable sports fans.

Personally, I'm sick of hearing that Danny Ainge, Doc Rivers and the rest of the Celtic brain trust deserve a free pass. While the Celtics have had a significantly large number of injuries of late, injuries are part of sports and championship caliber teams don’t allow themselves a "get out of jail free" card on this front. They make deals, sign players off the waiver wire and use creativity to get their teams over the hump. The Celtics, in my opinion, have more than their fair share of young players that have been slower than expected to develop and play key roles. Ainge's strategy of going with youth has failed miserably. He needs to stop this foolish charade. He is an inept GM, in my opinion—a good role player who continues to ride what little sheen is left from the luster of the 80s Celtics' dynasty.

I know I’m in the minority, but I’m glad that Pierce is coming back. While last night’s re-entry was oh-so-painful to see, as "The Truth" was obviously sucking wind and had no legs under him, which explains the 4-16 night shooting the rock. Here’s a superstar, who obviously is hungry to play, when he could easily collect his cake, while holing up in his high-end Boston pad and no one would think less of him. To me, it’s refreshing that Boston has a player who cares and is thinking in terms of his team and finding a way to help them. As today’s article in The Herald indicates, reporting on last night’s game, Paul's decision to play is part of a strategy, one that should be lauded, but instead, will only draw even more criticism from the hacks that make up most of Boston’s sports scribes.

“I decided (to return yesterday) morning,” said Pierce, who felt good at the team’s shoot around. “I wasn’t going to go until (tomorrow against the Timberwolves in Minneapolis), but I just got anxious. I just have to use these games to get back into shape, because the practices are so few with the All-Star break and the West Coast trip coming up. I thought these last three games (before the break) would be good for me to start getting a rhythm before we go out west.”

Rather than merely being content to count his cash, catalog his bling, or run with his posse, here’s a superstar who actually has a focus for the future—it's Pierce indicating to Celtic Nation that "I’m paid to play and I want to get ready and see if I can help my club turn it around and maybe build for the next year."

Oden or Durant aren’t guaranteed, lottery odds, or not. Even if they were locks, there is no assurance that having one of them will mean a season that’s better than a .500 finish and another one-and-out playoff appearance.

I know that whatever I write will have little influence on the mindset that now values ping pong balls and lottery slots over the heart of a lion. The fact that the Celtic brass aren’t doing anything to counter that, by coming out and publicly stating in no uncertain terms that they are going to do their best to win as many of the remaining games as they can, is beginning to make me wish that maybe Pierce could be dealt to a place where heart and winning is all important, so this worthy superstar can win the championship ring he deserves.

Note:

For what has become a regular feature of FSNE’s Celtics’ coverage, problems with the feed resulted in large blacked-out portions of last night’s game with New Jersey. This has occurred during every game for the past two weeks, where segments of the game went black, apparently caused by problems with the live feed. What made it even worse for me was the lack availability of the Celtics' radio broadcast, as neither WJAB (Pirates’ hockey games supercede the Celtics), or WRKO, was carrying the game.

Professional sports coverage used to assure that broadcast integrity could be counted on—apparently, even that is becoming a thing of the past.

Are all sports fans morons?

I seem to have a love-hate relationship with sports. Having played baseball at the college level briefly, as well as playing semi-professionally and for various town teams for more than a decade afterwards, not to mention coaching college-age players as recently as two years ago and still serving as league president, I obviously have a strong connection to the sporting world.

One of the things I recall from my own playing days back at the University of Maine, was that most of the jocks that I ran across wouldn't have been classified as intellectuals. I’m not sure why that is and certainly, you’ll find athletes in all sports that are intelligent, articulate and who could serve as role models of thoughtfulness.

If anyone has ever read David Halberstam, Pat Jordan, or Michael Lewis, to name but a few writers who mine the field of sports, it becomes obvious that sports and intelligence aren’t even mutually exclusive. Having said that, however, all one has to do is spend a few minutes going up and down the radio dial, or spend time with any of the better-known television sports talk shows to wonder why so much of America’s discussion of sports is rooted in the mundane, monotonous, and dare I say, simple-minded and shallow end of the pool.

There are sports hosts for instance, like David Stein, who takes the events that comprise sports and weaves them into a celebration of life. Even the incredibly popular sports host, Jim Rome, books solid interviews that on most occasions, reveal that many athletes are capable of more than the typically clichéd answers to the usual line of sports questioning.

Yet, from the two local yokels on The Morning Jab, to other national sports feeds from ESPN Radio and other syndicated programming beamed at us, the questions and the topics rarely seem to vary. Even worse, the level of discourse and the lack of civility among regular callers is particularly gallling. Speaking of the local morning drive programming on WJAB, the two morning hosts recycle the same warmed-over drivel on either the Patriots, or the Red Sox, 365 days per year. Oh, yeah, they manage to mix in some local racing news once-in-awhile, but good lord, how many fucking times must we rehash this past Sunday’s Patriots’ loss to Indianapolis? And did I mention the callers? Well shoot me and put me out of my misery! I swear, these people are interchangeable with the crowd of knuckle-draggers who call in to support the war, the right-wing agenda of the Bush administration and any other topic that can be condensed into a five-second sound bite.

It doesn’t seem to matter what sport or team one follows, either. Despite their losing record, I’ve gotten hooked on this year’s version of the Boston Celtics. As a result, I’ve begun searching the blogosphere and other online sources of information on the Green and Gold and I swear, the commentary is the same old rehashed shit that one would find at baseball, football, or hockey fansites. As always, there are exceptions. Both Dave Zirin’s blog, as well as the excellent NBA site, True Hoop offer examples of witty, intelligent takes on the world of sports. In fact, Zirin’s site often puts sports into a political context that is sadly missing in almost all reporting and writing that might be classified as sports journalism.

Like any subject, the world of sports allows writers and other so-called journalists, an opportunity for innovation and something that rises above the trite and typical. Writing about sports and covering teams and athletes allows access to an entirely different audience than commenting on politics, or popular culture. I’m surprised that more writers and journalists don’t offer a more nuanced approach and maybe attempt a blending of the world of athletics, with politics and social commentary, more often.

I know I’d certainly appreciate some different perspectives and new approaches to the coverage of sports, as I can only take so many discussions about the same old players and teams. It seems to me that a few others might, also.