Rivalry Resurrected

16
NBA Championships for the Boston Celtics, the most of any NBA franchise.

14
NBA Championships for the Minneapolis/L.A. Lakers, the second-most of any NBA franchise.

1986
Boston's last NBA Championship.

2002
Lakers' last NBA Championship.

8-2
Celtics' record against the Lakers in the 10 years (prior to this one) that they've met in the NBA Finals.

2-1*
Lakers' record against the Celtics in the NBA Finals during the Magic Johnson/Larry Bird years. Boston beat L.A. in 1984; the Lakers beat the Celts in 1985 and 1987. But the Celtics' best team of the Larry Bird Era -- the 1986 squad -- faced the Houston Rockets, not the Lakers, in the Finals. The Lakers were eliminated by Houston in the Western Conference finals that season.

21
Years since the Celtics met the Lakers in the NBA Finals. For the conspiracy theorists who claim the NBA rigged the playoffs to ensure this classic rivalry resumed, all I can say is, "Well done, David Stern." I'm hooked. It's been 10 years since I've watched the NBA Finals. (The 1998 championship was Chicago Bulls/Utah Jazz series, the one that preceded the second of Michael Jordan's three retirements.) And make no mistake, a lot of that is because I couldn't stomach watching during all the terrible Celtics years. But I also think it was a pretty unwatchable brand of basketball in the NBA for a lot of that time, and I like what I've seen a lot better this season.