In this world, there are a lot of things that matter.  Rarely, if ever, do sports fall too highly on that list.  I love sports as much as the next person, but lets face it, most championships are given out once a year, more or less rendering them insignificant, or at the very least, certainly not unique.

It is this general lack of relative importance that allows some events, certain moments and the occasional player, team or game to transcend.

In rivalry, sports are no longer games.  It’s City vs. City.  Team vs. Team.  Fans vs. Fans.  However, with the ever changing landscape in sports today, including free agency, players forcing trades, ballooning payrolls, lawyers fighting over collective bargaining agreements, performance-enhancing drugs, etc., most rivalries are on life support.  College athletics are built on rivalry, but even universities can’t keep their athletes in school.  It’s tough to keep a rivalry heated

Except for Lakers vs. Celtics - the greatest rivalry in any sport, ever.

When I was a kid, life was simple.  I loved grilled cheese sandwiches and playing in the backyard.  That was it.  That was my life.  Outside of those two things, nothing else mattered, more or less.  But when the Lakers and the Celtics played each other, I remember caring only because it seemed like everyone else did.  When they played, I would stop whatever I was doing, go inside, turn on CBS, and start caring.

There have been 65 NBA Championships, and the Lakers and Celtics have won 33 of them.  The Celtics have made the Finals 21 times, and the Lakers 31.  They’ve faced each other 12 times in the Finals, a record across all of sports.  Each team has 20+ Hall of Famers, a gang of retired numbers, and enough history to choke and kill a large, strong, virile horse.  By the numbers, there is simply nothing like this in sports.

The Celtics won 11 championships in 13 seasons. The Lakers have won 5 in their last 12 seasons, and 10 in the last 31.  Larry and Magic.  Wilt and Russell.  It should come as know surprise the two biggest player rivalries in the game have Boston and LA ties.  Let’s examine the 1980’s, or as I like to call it, “The Greatest Decade of Any Sport,” as a microcosm.

From the ten year stretch of ‘79-‘80 to ‘88-‘89, one of these two teams played in every NBA Finals, and between them, won 8 of the 10 championships of the decade.  Larry Bird and Magic Johnson resurrected the league from near financial failure in the 1970’s, and are widely considered two of the 10 greatest players in basketball history.  Add to them Hall of Famers Tiny Archibald, Bill Walton, Robert Parish, Kevin McHale, Dennis Johnson, K.C. Jones, NBA all-time leading scorer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy, and Bob McAdoo, and you see two of the all-time great dynasties in any era, in any athletic endeavor, mirroring each other, constructed to destroy the other.

Take into account the players and teams they competed against during the ‘80’s, including the Bulls and Michael Jordan, the Pistons and Isiah Thomas, the Sixers and Dr. J, the Rockets of Sampson and Olajuwon, the Malone and Stockton Jazz, among others, and their dominance is even more amazing.

What makes this rivalry unique is not just the incomparable statistics and numbers, players and history.  It’s the fact that Lakers versus Celtics represents so much.  From ‘58-‘59 to ‘68-‘69, the Celtics beat the Lakers in the Finals 7 times in a row (another record).  At that time, Lakers versus Celtics was about a wood shed ass-whuppin’. 

In the ‘80’s, this battle became about much more.  Two different styles of basketball: fast break versus half court.  Two schools of thought: progressive versus traditional.  Two major coastal cities separated by an entire country-worth of land: sunny Los Angeles and the seemingly always autumnal Boston.  Two lifestyles: Hollywood glamour v. blue collar New England grit.  Style versus substance.  And lastly, to a good and completely fair extent, blacks versus whites.  This rivalry was an allegory for attitudes, cultures and racial equality.  Boston was the predominantly white team, and LA predominantly black.  At a time when the NBA was rapidly changing, this rivalry divided along racial lines, revealing the tension that’s plagued this country since it’s existence.

Even today, the Celtics are rough and tumble.  Fighters, full of heart.  The Lakers seem to always be the pretty boys.  Flashy.  Finesse.  Soft.  Some things change.  And others never do.

What’s on the line tonight?  Relevance.  Which of these two teams is still in contention?  Rajon Rondo is fighting for the deserved recognition as one of the league’s elite point guards, while the Lakers are hoping to find any point guard.  Kevin Garnett will not go quietly as his window is slowly closing, while Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum are playing for their uncertain basketball lives, possibly shipped out at any moment.  Paul Pierce just passed Larry Bird on the Celtics all-time scoring list, but Kobe just passed Shaq on the NBA’s all-time scoring list.  This game is never without storylines.

This rivalry was, and continues to be, remarkable. Representative.  So, when they tip in Boston tonight, stop what you’re doing in the backyard, grab a grilled cheese, get in front of the television, and remember and revere what it used to be, and will always be to me.

@gotem_coach