Los Angeles Lakers, Boston Celtics: Lifetime of Hatred told in 30 for 30

The Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics were the stars of the most recent 30 for 30 on ESPN.

The Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics make up arguably the best rivalry in all of sports. The story of their rivalry was recently brought back into mainstream media by ESPN.

Celtic/Lakers: Best of Enemies was ESPN’s newest 30 for 30 was released on June 13th. It was a special three-part series breaking down the intense rivalry between the teams.This documentary came promptly after the end of this years NBA Finals and many fans on twitter proclaimed how this was the beginning of the “real Finals”.

This documentary came promptly after the end of this year’s NBA Finals and many fans on Twitter proclaimed how this was the beginning of the “real Finals”.

The Lakers and the Celtics are two of the NBA’s most prized franchises with 33 championships between the two organizations. Narrated by Ice Cube for the Lakers and Donnie Walhberg for the Celtics, the two describe the residual sentiment that is felt today from the age-old rivalry.

Part one of the series featured the history and roots of both of the respective organizations, which gave context as to how the rivalry began. While watching the episodes many thoughts came to mind about this historic rivalry and the documentary itself.

1. Former Lakers still feel the anguish when discussing the 84’ Finals

While talking about the results of the 1984 Finals, you can still see the disgust in their faces. Up until Game 4, the Lakers were confident that they would be able to close out the series versus the Celtics.

After a crushing 129-125 overtime loss, which was caused by errors from many players, the series was now tied at two apiece. Aside from the pure disgust, the players felt, fans watching the game felt the exact same way as Ice Cube noted.

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2. Physicality and Good Ole Fashioned Trash Talking

Personally, I miss the physicality of the NBA and the Rasheed Wallace era of trash talking. The documentary featured a lot of the trash talking that occurred between the players of the two teams, especially with Celtics known benchwarmer, M.L. Carr.

The series especially highlighted the clothesline hit that Kurt Rambus got from Kevin McHale that made the rest of the series reminiscent of backyard basketball. Today’s NBA features none of that kind of play, especially the physicality. Today, if you accidentally touch someone’s hand, it’s automatically called a foul but this was not the case in the 84’ Finals.

3. Even though the Celtics may have 17 Championships and the Lakers 16, it was the Lakers who won their last finals match up.

https://twitter.com/John818LA/status/876530683945951232

Next: 50 Greatest Players In Lakers Franchise History

In 2010, the Lakers won Game 7 of the NBA finals against the Boston Celtics. But, these finals were special for many reasons, not only was it won at Staples Center, it was the cherry on top for Kobe Bryant’s iconic career in which he won his 5^th NBA Championship during his illustrious 20-year career.