Projo Sports Blog

By Brian Ettkin
Albany Times Union

Our desire to relive the good old days makes nostalgia a marketable commodity. It's why graybeard rock bands reunite and the enduring musical "Hair" still strikes chords.

It's why this NBA Finals is being puffed up as if the 1980s Boston Celtics are facing the 1980s Los Angeles Lakers, for those were the league's best of times.

If you operate the NBA marketing machine, you push that button long and hard - when you're not clapping like a trained seal for the league's good fortune. You set up a teleconference with Larry Bird and Magic Johnson this week; you might even ask if they'd mind playing in crunch time, too.

But as enjoyable as it is to relive Magic's junior skyhook rising above the outstretched hands of Kevin McHale and Robert Parish or when McHale clotheslines Kurt Rambis, acts that altered the course of Finals past, it has no bearing on this Finals or the alleged Celtics-Lakers rivalry today.

If Celtics-Lakers is still a great rivalry, then so is Steelers-Cowboys.

And Yankees-Dodgers.

Not to mention Ali-Frazier.

When in the '80s the Celtics and Lakers played each other three times in four years in the NBA Finals, it was a great rivalry. And in the '60s when they played each other six times in the NBA Finals, it was a great rivalry. But this hasn't felt much like a rivalry since Bird retired after the 1991-92 season. These teams haven't played each other in an NBA Finals in 21 years. The Celtics haven't been relevant for most of the past 21 years.

This is an absorbing matchup because it pits the NBA's top two teams and a pair of superstars against each other, and the teams' history and tradition piques even a casual fan's interest.

"A lot of fans that watched Larry and I, that probably were not watching the NBA quite as much, are going to come back and watch this Finals because they want to see what the Celtics and the Lakers are going to do," Johnson said.

But two primary factors that once made Celtics-Lakers so compelling no longer exist:

1) Because they haven't played each other in the Finals for so long, there's no familiarity or contempt. The narrative for Celtics-Lakers must start anew.

Present players have heard the war stories like everyone else, but those aren't their war stories. There's no shared history between the 2007-08 Celtics and Lakers, both of which were recently rebuilt.

2) The old Celtics and Lakers were so supremely talented they routinely pushed each other to the brink, the competitive friction creating some of the finest drama in sports history.

But teams like those don't come along every year ... or decade.

There's never been a front line better than Bird, McHale and Parish. And yet the Lakers had three stars who were their equal in Magic, Kareem and James Worthy. That's three Hall of Fame players on each side. But that wasn't all. The Celtics had Dennis Johnson, who should someday be enshrined, too.

The Lakers countered with an underappreciated star of their own, Byron Scott. And then there were fine role players. Michael Cooper. Danny Ainge. A.C. Green. Cedric Maxwell. Rambis.
Those teams were ones for the ages.

These teams are the ones at this time. The foursome of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Rajon Rondo doesn't compare to Bird, McHale, Parish and D.J; just as the foursome of Kobe, Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom and Derek Fisher would be no match for Magic, Kareem, Worthy and Scott.

This should be a fine Finals.

It's just not the Finals we pretend it to be.

"It's not really about Larry and I now," Johnson said. "It's about what we, of course, have built over the years, but now this is their stage. It's Kobe's stage, Garnett's stage, Paul Pierce's stage, Ray Allen, Odom's stage."

It's enjoyable reliving the past, but let's not kid ourselves. The '80 Celtics-Lakers Finals were fantastic. But that was a long time ago. These Celtics and Lakers must produce today.

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