Lakers-Celtics: A Rivalry Revived

The atmosphere, the passion, the fire in the eyes of the players.  The Lakers and Celtics meet in the finals once again.  There are new coaches, new players, new looks—but the same old rivalry. 

Larry Bird and Magic Johnson once competed for the championships in the 1980's and helped fuel what has become a storied rivalry between the two championship organizations. 

A year ago the Celtics were a lowly team in the league.  They were young and were growing, but still struggling to win games.  And, Paul Peirce was becoming increasingly upset at the fact that the Celtics were not winning. 

Before the draft things looked dismal for the Celtics—they were hoping for the ping pong balls to help them grab the next big deal in the draft.  Shortly after that, the Celtics were able to deal and wheel and grab Ray Allen.  That move was enough to ease the tension in the organization. 

Shortly after the acquisition of Allen, the Celtics landed maybe the most influential deal in years—getting Kevin Garnett from the Minnesota Timberwolves. 

That led to the big three of Pierce, Allen, and Garnett.  They had the best regular season record in the NBA and now have gone through the Eastern Conference playoffs and landed in the Finals for the first time in 21 years.

The Lakers had their own experience in reaching the Finals.  Before the season their star Kobe Bryant demanded a trade, saying that the Lakers were not commited to winning right now. 

Thankfully for the Lakers he was not traded, and once the season came, he played like he has always played—everything seemed to fall into place. 

The young players had improved and everything was gelling until Andrew Bynum went down.

That led to the lopsided trade in which the Lakers got Pau Gasol from the Memphis Grizzlies in exchange for two young players.  This led to a rejuvanated Lakers team that played their way to the finals. 

Now we have what could be another classic Finals between the Lakers and the Celtics.  Two championship caliber teams clashing to get a championship.

This looks to be a very interesting match up.