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| Source:NBA-TV- Larry Legend vs. Magic Johnson: the two NBA players of the 1980s. |
"A brief video which talks about the Lakers vs Celtics rivalry that began in the early 1960s and continues today."
From Arch 91 Reborn
To say the Los Angeles Lakers Boston Celtics rivalry is great is a huge understatement. (What's next: water is still wet?) As former Oakland Raiders head coach John Madden said, for a rivalry to be great, two teams have to be good at the same time. The games that the two teams play against each other have to mean something. Championships and playoff positioning has to be at stake.
To say the Los Angeles Lakers Boston Celtics rivalry is great is a huge understatement. (What's next: water is still wet?) As former Oakland Raiders head coach John Madden said, for a rivalry to be great, two teams have to be good at the same time. The games that the two teams play against each other have to mean something. Championships and playoff positioning has to be at stake.
The two worst teams in a league or two of the worst teams in the league may hate each others guts but so what. And they may play very close games against each other but so what. Bad teams tend to play close games against each other. And one reason for that, is a lot of times when they play each other, neither team is good enough to actually win the game. It's the team that makes the most mistakes that loses the game, which is different from actually winning the game. And I know that looks different in record books but thats how it is.
What separates the Lakers-Celtics from everyone else in the NBA, as well as most rivalries in the pro sports, including the long 45 year rivalry between the Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers, is their history that goes back to the early 1960s.
The Lakers-Celtics rivalry in the 1980s represented the best of the NBA, with the two best head coaches in the NBA in Pat Riley and K.C. Jones, the three best players in Kareem, Magic, and Larry Legend, and the two best franchises of that decade as well.
When the Lakers played the Celtics and vice-versa, it wasn't about just winning that particular game or NBA Finals, but about beating the best and remaining the best in NBA basketball. Knowing that the other team was always in their way when they played each other.
When the Lakers beat the Celtics and vice-versa, they knew that they were the best, because they just beat the best. That's why this was the best rivalry in all of pro sports in the 1980s, because they were always playing each other to be the best that the NBA had to offer.
