The wide-eyed boy, fixated on the television screen, lost himself in a green and purple swirl. It was magical.
“I remember it like it was yesterday,” Kevin Garnett said. “Mom telling me, ‘Don’t get too close to the TV. It’ll kill your eyes.’ ”
Lakers-Celtics. These four insatiable syllables are resonating. Ten times these teams have squared off for the NBA championship, including three times in the 1980s, when Garnett and millions of others watched with childlike adulation.
And tonight, 21 years after the Lakers and Celtics last met for a title, they will meet again in Game 1 of the NBA Finals. The faces are different; instead of Magic Johnson, Los Angeles has Kobe Bryant, while Garnett, not Larry Bird, leads Boston’s new “Big Three.” But the history remains the same.
Tonight will be yesterday.
Tonight, we will be young.
Tonight, we will hear Garnett’s mom in the back of our minds.
“It’s a dream come true just thinking about it,” said Boston forward Paul Pierce, who grew up in Los Angeles. “I think that rivalry really revolutionized the game of basketball. And now I’m a part of it.”
While the 1980s Finals matchups define the rivalry, the two teams met seven times for a championship before then, though, as Johnson said, “it’s hard to call it a rivalry when you don’t win.”
Boston won all seven of those titles, making a handshake with Bill Russell quite noisy.
By 1980, the NBA was as played out as disco. The league had stars, but little star power. The Lakers and Celtics hadn’t played each other for a championship since 1969. When Johnson was a rookie, in 1980, the NBA Finals he helped win were aired on tape delay.
But a funny thing happened on the way to the Forum (or the Garden). Fans began to flock to see Johnson and his East Coast counterpart, Bird, and by 1984, the first time Bird and Magic met in the Finals, never had more fans tuned in to view an NBA game.
Heavyweight battles
By 1984, Johnson already had two rings and Bird had one, and their historic first Finals meeting went seven games, featuring Bird calling his teammates “sissies” after Game 3, Kevin McHale’s infamous clothesline of Kurt Rambis in Game 4 and a revered Game 7, which the Celtics won, the first of three heavyweight fights.
“When Larry beat us the first time in ’84, I was devastated,” Johnson said this week in a conference call with Bird. “I went into hiding for about a month, sat in the dark. I was so mad, upset, because the Celtics beat the Lakers, once again.”
The passion was real. That’s what made this rivalry so great. Whether it was a blue-collared, blue-faced fan screaming “Beat L.A.!” from the top row at the Gawww-den, or a Celtics player pontificating on his hatred for L.A., the desire to win was like an obsession — to those on both sides.
Los Angeles and Boston were clearly the two best teams in basketball, and each yearned to prove so by beating the other.
“We knew in order to win a championship, we’d probably have to go through the Boston Celtics,” said former Laker Byron Scott, now the Hornets’ coach. “We couldn’t stand them, and they couldn’t stand us, but I think one thing both teams had was mutual respect for each other.”
Said Bird: “It was always the Celtics and the Lakers — that’s really how we were taught. Everything was geared to getting to the Finals.”
So much so, that in 1986, when Ralph Sampson and the Rockets beat L.A. in the Western Conference finals, “I know all of us felt down a little bit because we weren’t going to be able to play the Lakers again,” Bird said during the teleconference.
“That’s funny,” said Johnson, whose Michigan State team beat Bird’s Indiana State for the 1979 NCAA title. “We felt the same way when you guys lost against Detroit (in 1988).”
“I don’t remember the losses,” Bird said. “I only remember the wins.”
“You still crazy, L.B.,” Johnson said, laughing genuinely.
The playful and powerful friendship of these two legends grew out of the heated hatred.
Both players were rookies in 1979-80, the new young faces of this rejuvenated league, but by 1984, they were just respectful rivals.
“We had never really talked for any length of time,” Johnson said.
But in a Converse commercial shoot in French Lick, Ind., the two got to know each other. The shoot was at Bird’s home. His mother cooked lunch. There, they were not “Magic” and “Larry Legend.”
“I really got to know him as a man, not just the great, great basketball player,” Johnson said. “I think it changed my view as far as Larry is concerned.”
And an unlikely friendship blossomed, like Tom Wolfe and Hunter S. Thompson, rival contemporaries at the top of their games.
A matchup of stars
Johnson and Bird were the faces of their teams, but their teams were constellations of stars, which made for luminous matchups.
Boston had the intimidating center Robert Parish, nicknamed “the Chief” for his stoic look. And the other member of the “Big Three” was McHale, who was as serious on the court as he was funny in his “Cheers” cameos. The late Dennis Johnson had the task of guarding his namesake — “one of the best individual defensive players probably to ever play in the league,” Magic said. And Bill Walton, the old warrior, was a key reserve, running his heart out on wounded feet.
As for the megawatt Lakers, they were the biggest stars in Hollywood. They were flashy players and flashy personas, be it Johnson, James Worthy, Scott or even their Armani-clad coach, Pat Riley, who was Gordon Gecko before Gordon Gecko. And, of course, the Lakers were anchored by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the NBA’s all-time scoring leader, who complemented the “Showtime” offense with his methodical low-post dominance.
When these two teams met, it was a spectacle.
In 1985, a year after Boston beat L.A., the Lakers got revenge, winning the sixth and deciding game in Boston, their first title against the green and white.
What proved to be the bloodmatch was the 1987 Finals, featuring Magic’s last-second hook shot to seal Game 4 and a thrilling Game 6 clincher for the Lakers, this time at home in the Forum.
And so, 21 Junes later, the Lakers carry their two-title win-streak against Boston into this year’s Finals. And even before the opening tip, this series is sizing up to be a great one.
There is Bryant, the league MVP, looking to win his first title without Shaquille O’Neal. Garnett, a former MVP, with perhaps his only chance at a ring. Pierce, playing against the team he loved as a kid. Luke Walton, a Lakers reserve, playing against his dad’s old team. And Lakers coach Phil Jackson, looking to win his record 10th title as a coach, one more than legendary Celtics coach Red Auerbach.
“It’s not really about Larry and me now,” Johnson said. “It’s about what we, of course, have built over the years — but now, this is their stage.”
Benjamin Hochman: 303-954-1294 or bhochman@denverpost.com
The series
LAKERS vs. CELTICS (Best of seven)
All games on KMGH-7
Game 1: Today at Boston, 7 p.m.
Game 2: Sunday at Boston, 7 p.m.
Game 3: Tuesday at L.A., 7 p.m.
Game 4: June 12 at L.A., 7 p.m.
Game 5: June 15* at L.A., 7 p.m.
Game 6: June 17* at Boston, 7 p.m.
Game 7: June 19* at Boston, 7 p.m.
(*If necessary)
The rivalry
The 2008 Finals marks the 11th time the Celtics and the Lakers will have played each other for the NBA title, with Boston having won the first eight times.
1959
Celtics win 4-0
1962
Celtics win 4-3
1963
Celtics win 4-2
1965
Celtics win 4-1
1966
Celtics win 4-3
1968
Celtics win 4-2
1969
Celtics win 4-3
1984
Celtics win 4-3
1985
Lakers win 4-2
1987
Lakers win 4-2
Glory days
A look at the storied Celtics-Lakers Finals matchups of the 1980s:
1984: CELTICS WIN 4-3
Lakers 115, Celtics 109
Celtics 124, Lakers 121, OT
Lakers 137, Celtics 104
Celtics 129, Lakers 125, OT
Celtics 121, Lakers 103
Lakers 119, Celtics 108
Celtics 111, Lakers 102
Highlights: 1984 was the last year of the 2-2-1-1-1 Finals format. Magic Johnson set a Finals record with 21 assists in Game 3 and had 17 in Game 4. The Celtics won the Atlantic Division over the defending champion Sixers with new additions K.C. Jones (as coach) and guard Dennis Johnson. The Lakers stole the home-court advantage in Game 1, then squandered it in a devastating overtime loss in Game 4 at the Forum. In the finale, Cedric Maxwell, the Finals MVP from three years earlier, had 24 points, and D.J. added 22, offsetting Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s 29 points. Larry Bird averaged 27 points and 11 rebounds and was named Finals MVP. Game 7 set a TV ratings record for the league. Magic Johnson’s playmaking gaffes late in Games 2, 4 and 7 helped send the Lakers to defeat.
1985: LAKERS WIN 4-2
Celtics 148, Lakers 114
Lakers 109, Celtics 102
Lakers 136, Celtics 111
Celtics 107, Lakers 105
Lakers 120, Celtics 111
Lakers 111, Celtics 100
Highlights: The Celtics looked dominant in the opener, the “Memorial Day Massacre,” but L.A. asserted itself behind Finals MVP Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who averaged 26 points. After eight tries, dating to when the franchise was in Minneapolis, the Lakers finally defeated Boston in the Finals. Magic Johnson set a Finals record with his average of 14.0 assists.
1987: LAKERS WIN 4-2
Lakers 126, Celtics 113
Lakers 141, Celtics 122
Celtics 109, Lakers 103
Lakers 107, Celtics 106
Celtics 123, Lakers 108
Lakers 106, Celtics 93
Highlights: L.A. got the only road win, the crucial Game 4 classic at the old Garden. Larry Bird drained a 3-pointer with 12 seconds left, then Magic Johnson’s “baby sky hook” in the paint sank the Celtics. Magic had been working on the shot with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar during practice throughout the regular season. Boston’s Kevin McHale and Robert Parish were hobbled by injuries in the first two games. Magic was the Finals MVP for the third and last time. In 18 playoff games, Magic averaged 21.8 points, 12.2 rebounds and 7.7 assists. The Lakers had won four titles in eight seasons at that point and would add their fifth of the decade the following season, defeating the Pistons.
Gregg Burkhart, The Denver Post
The NBA Finals: Then and now
This week, Lakers legend Magic Johnson said: “The only thing we wanted to do, and what the players should do, is try to leave the game in the hands of those coming after them in a good way, in a great way, like Larry (Bird) and I did. We could feel good when we retired, the game was in great shape. We enhanced the game.” The NBA has blossomed since Johnson and Bird, who won a combined eight titles, were rookies in 1979-1980.
Television
Then: The NBA Finals were aired on tape delay on CBS.
Now: The NBA Finals will air in 205 countries and territories in 46 languages including, among others, Arabic, Czech, Galician, Greek, Icelandic, Mandarin, Tagalog, Thai and Ukrainian.
Foreign players
Then: No players in the NBA Finals were born outside the United States.
Now: There are five international players in the Finals. A record 280 international media from 35 countries are credentialed.
Size of league
Then: The NBA consisted of 22 teams.
Now: With the popularization of the game, thanks in part to Johnson and Bird, the league has expanded to 30 teams, including a team in Toronto.
Benjamin Hochman, The Denver Post
