Everett, Wash.
Published: Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Lakers-Celtics: A lot of love and a lot more hate

By Mark Heisler
Los Angeles Times

 If, as Jerry West says, the NBA's greatest rivalry wasn't a rivalry at first since the Lakers never won in the '60s and the Boston Celtics never lost, it already seemed bigger than mere life or death, at least in West's life.

Nor did the zeal diminish in their '80s rematches when the Showtime Lakers and the Larry Bird Celtics battled on even terms.

It was the alpha and omega of rivalries, encompassing all human emotions, starting, of course, with hate.

The Lakers hated the Celtics and their blustering leader, Red Auerbach, but then who didn't?

No one hated Auerbach more than Lakers coach Pat Riley, whose movie star looks masked his knife-between-the-teeth drive. Riley believed every horror story about Red, once ordering his team's water barrel emptied in Boston Garden.

Riley wanted his players to hate everything about the Celtics, gathering his players to ask if they knew what a Celtic was.

"Finally, Kareem (Abdul-Jabbar) raised his hand," Riley wrote. "He said the Celtics were a warring race of Danes.

"I had to explain that they were also a cunning, secretive race."

Of course, Riley was Irish but he was a Laker first.

Not that you had to be paranoid since the teams were messing with each other.

Fans besieged the Lakers' hotel in Boston with phone calls, waking up sleeping players -- which Riley blamed on the Celtics for giving out their location. Lakers officials were delegated to wake up Boston players in their hotel in L.A.

Happily, the fear and loathing ran second to respect that grew into reverence among the participants, or at least some of them.

After the Celtics' Game 7 victory in 1969, John Havlicek hugged West, who played for the Lakers with a sore hamstring wrapped like the leg of a mummy, telling him, "I love you."

Bill Russell flew out for West's farewell ceremony, announcing, "If I could have one wish in life granted, it would be that you would always be happy."

By the '80s, the two teams needed each other as they needed air and water.

Bird and Magic Johnson lived to beat the other from the start when they were bitter rivals to the finish when they were close friends.

When Bird retired, Johnson flew East and donned a Celtics jersey for his retirement ceremony, whereupon Bird told him, "Magic, get out of my dreams!"

Bird presented Johnson at his Hall of Fame induction, noting, "I was going to speak from my heart but, man, he broke my heart so many times, do I have anything left?"

Sentiment ended at the tipoff. After the Celtics' Game 4 win in the Forum in the 1984 Finals, Bird, on the bus, saw Johnson slouch past, looking devastated. Said Bird later: "I thought, 'Suffer, you ... ' "

One time or another, they all did.

1959: Celtics 4, Minneapolis Lakers 0

Rookie of the year Elgin Baylor leads the remnants of the old dynasty in scoring, rebounds and assists but the Lakers are overmatched.

1962: Celtics 4, Los Angeles Lakers 3

The relocated young Lakers jolt the Celtics, winning Game 5 in Boston to go up, 3-2, as Baylor scores 61 points, still the Finals record.

The Celtics force a Game 7 in Boston Garden and win, 110-107, in overtime.

With the game tied and time running out in regulation, the Lakers' Frank Selvy, a two-time All-Star, misses a wide-open eight-foot baseline jumper.

Says West: "I've always wondered if Frank Selvy had made that shot -- and he'd made a couple of big shots right before that -- would that have helped change the course of history of this thing?"

Couldn't have hurt.

1963: Celtics 4, Lakers 2

With Bob Cousy in his last season, Sports Illustrated says of the Celtics, "Tired blood courses through their varicose veins." That must be where the SI jinx starts with the Celtics about to romp in the Finals and go on to win in 1964, 1965, 1966, 1968 and 1969.

"Please," Auerbach says, "tell me some of these stories about Los Angeles being the basketball capital of the world."

1965: Celtics 4, Lakers 1

The Celtics win 62 games to the Lakers' 49. That's how close the Finals are.

1966: Celtics 4, Lakers 3:

The West is now a sideshow. The new marquee matchup is between Wilt Chamberlain's Philadelphia 76ers and the Celtics, who finish No. 2 in the East.

Nothing can match the resolve of the old Celtics when they're cornered. In what will become a pattern, they win when it counts, upending the 76ers, 4-1, in the playoffs.

The Lakers come back from a 3-1 deficit to force another Game 7 in Boston Garden but the Celtics win, 95-93, for Auerbach's ninth and last title.

Of course, if Red knew Phil Jackson would one day get nine, too, he might have kept coaching.

1968: Celtics 4, Lakers 2:

Dethroned in 1967, the Celtics see the defending champion 76ers win the East for the third season in a row and take a 3-1 lead in their playoff series.

The Celtics then stage their most improbable comeback yet, winning 4-3.

The Lakers have been rooting for Boston, fearing the awesome 76ers, only to find they can't beat the sly old foxes, either.

If the entire league is flummoxed, the Lakers, who won't win their first title until 1972 -- over the New York Knicks -- are really getting a complex.

"People ask what it was like to finally win," says West. "I didn't know.

"I was so used to being on the other team where regardless of how you played or how your team played, it was almost like fate wasn't going to let you win."

1969: Celtics 4, Lakers 3:

This is the Lakers' year -- they think -- as they acquire Chamberlain to go with Baylor and West in the, quote, greatest collection of stars the game has ever seen, unquote.

Unfortunately, they're all in their 30s and don't fit. Wilt and Lakers Coach Butch van Breda Kolff have so many exchanges in the media, the Los Angeles Times becomes known as "Butch's paper" and the Los Angeles Examiner as "Wilt's paper."

The Celtics are really old now, falling to No. 4 in the East but arising yet again.

It comes down to another Game 7 but this one is in the Forum where Owner Jack Kent Cooke has balloons penned up for the victory celebration.

With 5:45 left and Boston up, 103-94, Chamberlain, the iron man, hurts his knee and goes out. With the lead down to 103-101, Wilt asks to go back in but van Breda Kolff turns him down.

Boston wins, 108-106.

1984: Boston 4, Lakers 3:

There really is a Celtics Hex, a new generation of Lakers learns.

Fifteen years later, five years after Johnson and Bird's duel in the 1979 NCAA Finals, the highest-rated basketball game of all time, they all meet again.

The Lakers lead in the last minute of Games 1-4 but the Celtics steal Games 2 and 4, starting with Gerald Henderson's Game 2 interception of James Worthy's pass.

Says West, noting the Lakers' subsequent victories in 1985 and 1987, "And frankly if someone had called timeout, they might have won a third time."

McHale clotheslines Kurt Rambis in Game 4. The Celtics have never been thugs but they've never been this desperate. "We had to do what we could because we couldn't keep up with them," says Bird. "They were running us out of the building."

The Celtics go up, 3-2, in Game 5 as the Lakers wilt in Boston Garden, which turns into a sauna on a hot Friday night.

By now the Lakers are wondering if Auerbach can control the weather as easily as turning off their hot water.

It comes down to another Game 7, the fourth between these two teams. It's a balmy 91 degrees in Boston Garden as the Celtics win again.

1985: Lakers 4, Celtics 2

Lakers history turns completely around in four days, starting when the Celtics bury them, 148-114, in the "Memorial Day Massacre" in Boston Garden.

Riley, written off as the lucky guy who inherited his job, scorches his players in a film session, starting with Abdul-Jabbar, whom he has always tread softly around but who has just been embarrassed by Robert Parish in Game 1.

After two days of Riley's cold fury in practices, the Lakers win Game 2 as Abdul-Jabbar gets 30 points and 17 rebounds.

The Lakers close it out in Boston Garden, the franchise's Hell throughout its history. Game 6 is so decisive, even Boston fans applaud politely.

1987: Lakers 4, Celtics 2

Old Celtics do fall, just not easily.

The 65-17 Lakers glide to the Finals. The 59-23 Celtics are hobbled after seven games against Detroit's young Bad Boys in a classic that turns on Bird's steal of Isiah Thomas' inbounds pass.

The Lakers batter the Celtics in Games 1 and 2, 126-113 and 141-122.

In Boston Garden, the Celtics take Game 3 but Johnson's "junior, junior sky hook" wins Game 4.

In the last exchange of shots in this great duel, Johnson's shot drops with two seconds left.

The Celtics call time and in-bound the ball to Bird, whose three-pointer is dead on but bounces off the back of the rim.

"In '85, they were good," says Bird after the series. "In '84 I really thought they should have beaten us. I don't know if this team's better than they were but I guess they are."

It's all over, at least for 21 years.
© 2009The Daily Herald Co., Everett, WA