Even before the Boston Celtics‘ iconic rivalry with the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1980s took center stage, another war was brewing — one even more brutal and violent — with the Philadelphia 76ers. As the two teams battled for supremacy in the Eastern Conference, their matchups became very intense.
According to Cedric Maxwell, the bad blood wasn’t even confined to the hardwood. Rather, it carried over to real life to such an extent that once, the entire Sixers team refused to eat at a restaurant simply because they saw their rivals sitting inside.
Maxwell on the disdain the 76ers had for the Celtics
“Cornbread” entered the NBA in 1977, and by 1980, he got his first taste of playoff basketball when the Celtics reached the Eastern Conference Finals. It was there that they met the Sixers, who ended the Celtics’ campaign in five games.
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The following year, the two teams met at the same stage, and it turned out to be a straight-up war. Down 3-1 in that series, the Celtics pulled off a stunning comeback despite the Sixers’ peak aggression — throwing punches, elbows, and shoving at every possible opportunity.
The blood feud only deepened when the Sixers faced off against the Celtics once again in the 1982 EC Finals. This time, the former exacted revenge by winning the series in a hard-fought seven-game showdown. And if those series of on-court battles weren’t enough, the 1981 Finals MVP once revealed how the personal beef was developed among players in real life, as once the entire Philly team refused to eat at a restaurant and walked off simply because the Celtics were present there.
“We had an exhibition game that we played against the Sixers in Knoxville, Tennessee one year. There is only one restaurant there (by the arena) to eat in and after the game, we happened to get there first. They came to the restaurant after we sat down. They looked at us and we looked at them and they said, ‘We ain’t eating.’ They left. They left! They weren’t ordering any food. They just turned around and left,” Maxwell recalled in an interview. “No NBA player leaves food! But we were there and they didn’t want to eat.”
The 76ers were the Celtics’ first true level
To put it simply, as per the 6’8″ forward’s admission, the players on both sides knew that in order to earn victory and respect against one another, friendships and reputations meant nothing. A single word or even a stare could ignite an all-out brawl. That was just the nature of it.
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“I always tell people that I’ve never been to war,” Maxwell added. “But I felt like that was the closest I’ve gotten, the rivalry and playing those guys.”
Now, modern-day fans might know that the rivalry between teams today means getting into each other’s faces, but back in the day, the hatred on the court became so real that players despised each other off the court as well. And every time they squared off, there were high chances that some or the other personal drudge was going to be settled.