Los Angeles Lakers: Best trade in team history with the Boston Celtics

The Los Angeles Lakers’ rivalry with the Boston Celtics has not stopped the teams from trading.

The Los Angeles Lakers–Boston Celtics rivalry is the best and most storied rivalry in the NBA. The two teams are the most iconic franchises in basketball history and have squared off countless times in the NBA Finals.

It does not get better than the Lakers-Celtics rivalry. There have been so many great rivalries in basketball but none have spanned the generations that the Lakers-Celtics rivalry has.

This rivalry has not stopped the two sides from doing business, however, as the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics have conducted three trades in the history of the franchises, per Basketball-References Trade Partners tool.

In what is an ongoing series here at Lake Show Life, we are taking a look at the best trade in Los Angeles Lakers history with every single other NBA team. Today, we break down the best trade between two bitter foes.

Los Angeles Lakers’ best trade ever with the Boston Celtics:

So when we talk about the best trade we are talking about from the Lakers’ viewpoint. It could be an absolute bust for the other team, but if it is great for the Lakers, then it is making it into this series.

This trade favors Boston, but it is still the best trade that the Lakers have made with the Celtics. In 1999 the two teams swapped Tony Battie and Travis Knight, which wasn’t anything special, and the Lakers traded for Charlie Scott, who played only 48 games in LA, in 1977.

This trade happened in the 2004 offseason and was part of the front office’s efforts to dismantle the team and start over as it was clear that the Kobe-Shaq relationship was past its salvageable point, at least on the court.

Thus, the Lakers traded two veteran contracts in Payton and Fox and traded the team’s first-round pick in the 2006 NBA Draft.

The Lakers did not get much in return for the veterans outside of freeing up their contracts. Atkins played one season in LA, and albeit solid, was not groundbreaking in any way. Jones also played a season and was merely a depth role player and Mihm played four seasons with the team.

He could not stay healthy after his second season with the Lakers and he was never more than a serviceable backup center.

That is enough to take home the honors of the best trade between the two parties from the Lakers’ perspective, showing how inconsequential the trades between the two sides have been. However, for the Celtics, this was a home run.

Fox retired and never suited up for the Celtics and Gary Payton played just one season in Boston before signing with the Miami Heat. It was not Fox nor Payton that made it worth it, it was the Lakers’ first-round pick in 2006.

This draft pick traveled around the league. After being traded to Boston, the Celtics turned around and traded the pick alongside Payton, Tom Gugliotta and Michael Stewart for Antonie Walker. Ironically, Payton was then waived by the Hawks and re-signed with the Celtics.

The Hawks then traded the draft pick to the Phoenix Suns. The Hawks traded the pick, their 2007 first-round pick and Boris Diaw for Johnson. Then, on draft night, Boston re-acquired the pick by trading a 2007 first-round pick and selected Rajon Rondo, who became an integral part of the Celtics’ championship window.

The Boston Celtics definitely got more value out of the trade but this was still the best trade between the two sides on the Los Angeles Lakers’ end.