Cornbread on '77

[MU82]

Cedric "Cornbread" Maxwell talked about his basketball life, including quite a bit about the NCAA semifinal loss to Marquette, in this interview with Charlotte Observer columnist Scott Fowler: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports/sports-legends/article270989437.html?ac_cid=DM769313&ac_bid=-2023202403

It might be behind a paywall, so here's what he said about the loss to the Warriors:

Oh, we got hosed. We really did. ... They try a long inbounds pass. I know I’m going to catch this ball if they try to throw it over my head. And he throws it, and I catch it, but (Marquette star) Jerome Whitehead hits me from behind and jars the ball loose. He goes to dunk it, but I was able to block his dunk. The ball hung on the rim, and then he actually tapped it in while it was on the rim. It was goaltending. And that’s how we lost.

A few interesting non-Marquette tidbits:

++ He wasn't nicknamed Cornbread because he liked cornbread; it was because a teammate thought he looked like Jamaal Wilkes, the NBA star who also was the lead character in the movie Cornbread, Earl and Me.

I don't like cornbread at all.

++ Larry Bird and Jo Jo White smoked cigarettes, the latter during halftime of games.

It was kind of funny to develop a relationship with Larry. We were as different as day and night. Larry wanted to hunt, smoke cigarettes and drink beer. I didn’t drink beer. I didn’t smoke cigarettes. But we formed a great partnership on the court. ... My first year in the league, all that was a surprise to me. ... A guy who I idolized was Jo Jo White. And my first game in the league I look across at halftime and Jo Jo is smoking a cigarette. And I’m like, at halftime in the locker room?! And I wanted to tell the coach. But then I looked up at the chalkboard and Tommy Heinsohn was smoking a cigarette, too.

++ And here's a hot take on his choice for greatest basketball player ever:

Hakeem Olajuwon. He dominated the game better than anybody has ever dominated the game.

Maybe Jerome hit Cornbread on the head too hard!

[rocket surgeon]

loved watching cedric-he will always be known as a celtic. 

  *he did not like the name "cornbread" and didn't gain widespread use until he was named MVP of 1976 NIT tournament

[We R Final Four]

Interesting perspective on the long pass to Whitehead. I maybe a homer here, but I certainly don’t see it that way.
Only thing he left out….that it was after the time expired!

[tower912]

He has earned the right to view it through his own filter.     

[NCMUFan]

Crazy last three second.
Was it Butch to heave the pass?  Whoever did it, great job!  They had Bo Ellis in front of Cornbread and Jerome behind.  One of those two were going to get it.

[We R Final Four]

He has earned the right to view it through his own filter.   

Ha-sure.

[dgies9156]

Crazy last three second.
Was it Butch to heave the pass?  Whoever did it, great job!  They had Bo Ellis in front of Cornbread and Jerome behind.  One of those two were going to get it.

It was Butch and in all the years I've seen it over since I saw the original, never saw what Cornbread saw.

God love him. I'd be complaining if I lost that way too. He forgot Al intimidating the scorer!

[Dr. Blackheart]

https://youtu.be/JgRjgpfisQ8

[Galway Eagle]

https://youtu.be/JgRjgpfisQ8

So it bounced off his hands and Jerome grabs it. Thinking the cornbreads gotten a bit stale in his old age

[tower912]

He isn't the first old guy to have gotten more heroic and better looking in his youth. 

[barfolomew]

[dgies9156]

OK guys, Al himself acknowledged there was a lot of judgment in the play Maxwell is complaining about.

In a retrospective film on the 1977 Championship, Al said it could have been a lot of things, including charging and offensive basket interference, among other things. Maxwell refused to consider that maybe he fouled on the play as well.

Who knows? Who cares, WE WON!!!!

[tower912]

Under the current system, how long do you think it would have taken to review that play?

[Lennys Tap]

He isn't the first old guy to have gotten more heroic and better looking in his youth.

The older we are the better we were.

[Dr. Blackheart]

Under the current system, how long do you think it would have taken to review that play?

 

[lawdog77]

Under the current system, how long do you think it would have taken to review that play?

Instant replay hates Marquette.

[MU82]

As long as we're going back in time ... I just put $100K on Marquette winning the 1977 title. I like my chances.