Essays from the Past: Celtics vs. Lakers

This is a contest entry I sent to CelticsHub almost a decade ago. It won me a pair of basketball shoes.

Hate the Lakers?! Thatʼs small minded. As Bill Russell noted in his autobiography, the com- in competition means “with”: without the Lakers the Celtics would not be as great, just as without Wilt Chamberlain Russell would never have become as great as he did.
I grew up in Southern California until age 11. It seemed like every other week Jerry West and Elgin Baylor were playing out Atticus Finchʼs definition of courage: knowing they were licked before they started, but giving it their whole heart, soul, and guts, only to fall to Russell, Cousy, the Joneses, and the perpetually-in-motion and perpetually-in-the-right place John Havlicek.
What a relief when I was fourteen, truly aware, and truly in love with NBA basketball to live in the land of the champions. I fell in love with the Cowens/White/Havlicek Celts. Think KG plays like a mad dog? You must never have seen Dave Cowens cover opposing point guards and centers on successive plays.
Someone has already posted about Cedric Maxwellʼs finals MVP performance. Max was the man! But if you didnʼt appreciate how great the Showtime Lakers played the game you were blinded by your green glasses. Again, without Magic Bird could not fly as high as he did; weʼd have fewer “Bird stole the ball”-type memories.
We canʼt hate the Lakers, we have to love them for helping us achieve the greatness we have. My greatest modern Celtics memory is witnessing the absolute spanking we delivered them in the 2008 Finals. It was tremendous to spend the fourth quarter of game six celebrating, but my greatest memory moment was from game five: Ray Allen getting the offense spread and then blowing around Sasha Vujacic, who subsequently cried!
Would Jerry West cry? Would Baylor? Wilt? Jabbar? Magic? Worthy?
The current Lakers are almost hateable; they are so lacking in charisma. But we canʼt hate them, any more than Hemingwayʼs Old Man could hate his fish. We cannot hate them, but next season we have to kill them... again.

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Bends Toward Justice

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