There have been many memorable rivalries in the NBA but when it comes to team rivalries, none comes close to the one between the LA Lakers and the Boston Celtics. For decades the Lakers-Celtics games have been filled with passion, tension, and the determination to go one up on your competitor. While most of these wars are fought and settled on the court, within the rules of basketball, sometimes, it goes out of control.
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The rivals met one another in the 2008 NBA Finals. The late, Kobe Bryant was leading the charge for the Lakers against a stacked Celtics. In 6 games the Boston franchise clinched the title in their favor, handing the Lakers a crushing defeat that they’d remember for years. Even though the Celtics won the championship, the tension never faded. When Phil Jackson’s team visited Boston next year, the fans showed the ugly side of frenzy. From putting the players’ lives at risk to giving Jackson the finger, the Celtics fans stooped to their lowest.
Coach Phil Jackson recalled the frightening Boston night in his 2013 book ‘Eleven Rings: The Soul of Success’. He wrote,
“The nightmare continued after we left the stadium. By then the streets were filled with mobs of rowdy Celtics fans, cursing the Lakers and trying to turn over the team bus while we were stalled in traffic. One fan stood on the front bumper, glared at me, and gave me the finger.”
Jackson was known as the Zen Master for a reason. Even at the time when there was absolute chaos going on outside the team bus, he saw an opportunity.
While he was angry at the Celtics’ fans for their actions and the police for not doing their job, he realized that this event would bring the team closer to their goal. He wrote, “But in the end I was thankful for the disturbance because it galvanized everybody on the bus into committing themselves to returning to Boston and repaying the Celtics in kind. There’s nothing like a humiliating loss to focus the mind.”
Aggravated by the disrespect, the players channelled their frustration into winning the ’09 title. In 2010 the Lakers had their chance to give the Boston fans a taste of their medicine.
The Lakers established their dominance over the Celtics
In the 2010 NBA Finals, the old rivals were facing off once again. From the 2008 championship loss to the disrespect they faced in 2009, there were a lot of scores that the Lakers had to settle. After tying the series in game 6, the LA franchise, led by the Black Mamba was standing on the verge of creating history. Despite facing off against players who were at the top of their game, Kobe’s Lakers closed the game 7 at 83-79.
Before the Finals, Kobe said, “We’ll see how much we matured. [The Celtics] challenged us two years ago … now it’s a test to see how much we’ve grown.”
Kobe earned his 5th NBA title, and 2nd Finals MVP of his career and stamped the Lakers’ authority over Celtics. The Lakers showed both maturity and growth by settling scores on the basketball court.
