Former Boston Celtics player and radio analyst Cedric Maxwell spoke to the clear turmoil in the locker room this season, claiming this 2018-19 team was the most dysfunctional he's seen since 1983.

While a lot of the blame is falling on soon-to-be-former Celtics point guard Kyrie Irving, Maxwell urged this wasn't just an Irving matter, but a collective disaster.

“It wasn't just him,” said Maxwell, according to ESPN's Jackie MacMullan. “This group was the most dysfunctional team I've seen since 1983, when we had four Hall of Famers on our roster and got swept by the Milwaukee Bucks. These guys never found a way to be on the same page.”

Irving's constant mood swings and clear despondent attitude were quickly to blame as the Celtics couldn't keep any sense of real momentum throughout the season, going through a winning streak only to see it go down in crumbles with a string of losses.

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A lot of it was attributed to a Celtics team that quickly saw Irving gain back the reins of the team, despite boasting a core that was knocking on the doors of the NBA Finals the past postseason. Head coach Brad Stevens pointed out that the pieces simply didn't fit.

“The bottom line,” said Stevens, “is that we had seven perimeter guys who were all very good players, and all of them brought something different and unique to the table. If you ask any one of them, I'm sure they'll tell you it was hard to find all that they wanted this season.

“I don't lose any sleep over that. They were all extremely competitive, well-intentioned guys. The pieces just didn't fit.”

Yet the only common denominator on this was Irving, as he was the only player out of the equation when this same core did get along and made strides to become a championship team.

Be it what it may be, it's clear that the dysfunction wasn't merely a construct of the media, but rather a real, palpable problem in the locker room, which caused this team to implode before reaching its true potential.