BANGOR, Maine — One hot topic around the National Basketball Association these days concerns star players being held out of games merely to rest up for postseason play, much to the chagrin of ticket-buying fans.
The same is not true for NBA broadcasters, particularly the Boston Celtics’ radio duo of Sean Grande and Cedric Maxwell, who spent Tuesday’s scheduled off-day in the team’s schedule working a crowd at the Sea Dog Brewing Co. restaurant during an appearance hosted by The Drive of SportsRadio 92.9 The Ticket of Brewer.
That Grande and Maxwell arrived in Bangor with the Celtics just having edged past the reigning world champion Cleveland Cavaliers into first place in the NBA’s Eastern Conference was merely a coincidence — or not.
“This was the plan all along to this day,” joked Grande, now in his 17th year as the team’s play-by-play announcer. “Do you know how long they’ve been asking us to come up here and do this? We said, ‘Yeah, yeah,’ we’ll come up here on a day off as soon as the Celtics lead the Eastern Conference.
“Who knew?”
The Celtics will enter Wednesday night’s home game against Milwaukee boasting a one-half game lead over the Cavaliers in the race for homecourt advantage throughout the Eastern Conference playoffs.
“I think the Cavaliers right now are stretching their legs a little bit and are trying to get ready for the playoffs,” said Maxwell, who as a player helped the Celtics win NBA championships in 1981 and 1984 and now has his uniform number 31 retired and hanging in the rafters of the team’s home court at the TD Garden.
“The Cavaliers have a veteran team that’s been there and done that so it’s different for them than the Celtics. The Celtics are the team that would love to be in first place to help them get over the hump when they have their lows, especially with the crowd they have in the Garden. I don’t think the Cavaliers feel like they need to be in first place. They feel like they need to be healthy.”
Maxwell is in his 22nd year as the Celtics’ color analyst after making peace with late Celtics president Red Auerbach, who traded the 6-foot-8 forward from North Carolina-Charlotte to the Los Angeles Clippers for Bill Walton after the 1984-85 season.
“I think for me it’s more entertainment,” said Maxwell of his broadcasting role. “Sean is more analytical when it comes to crunching numbers, so it wouldn’t be good for me to be crunching those numbers when he’s already doing that because then it becomes too technical. What you want to do when you’re doing a game is to make that person listening feel like you’re just sitting around and having a conversation with them.”
Most conversations surrounding the Celtics these days reflect the steady rise in the team’s fortunes under fourth-year head coach Brad Stevens.
“Brad does not leave players behind,” said Maxwell. “Certain coaches back in the day weren’t going to play a rookie. You had to be Magic [Johnson] or [Larry] Bird if you were going to play as a rookie.
“Brad gave [current Celtics’ rookie] Jalen Brown minutes early in the year and he was God-awful, but then he began to make one play and then he’d make another play. Now Brad’s not afraid to play him late in games and that’s the brilliance of Brad, that there’s not a guy on that roster that can’t be effective.”
Stevens’ philosophy has left the Celtics with considerable depth, though after first-round playoff losses each of the last two years the question remains how far that wealth of talent behind 5-foot-9 guard Isaiah Thomas and his team-leading 29 points per game can take the storied franchise.
“From one to 15 this may be the most talented team in the NBA because you don’t have the dropoff,” said Maxwell. “That works great in the regular season, but during the playoffs the skill players and very talented players elevate their games so the advantage of being so deep isn’t as great.”
Neither Maxwell nor Grande are projecting the Celtics as favorites to capture the franchise’s 18th world title this spring. Their definition of a successful 2016-17 campaign is far more modest.
“Everybody asks if they’re competing for a championship,” said Maxwell. “I think they’re competing right now to win their first playoff series under Brad. Once they can do that anything can happen, but they’ve got to get over the hump.
“We’ve watched Toronto from afar when they collapsed year after year. They finally broke through last year and I’m looking for the Celtics to do the same this year.”
