NBA Schedule 2011: Celtics vs. Knicks on Christmas Will Revive Heated Rivalry
The Boston Celtics and the New York Knicks will be the best rivalry in the NBA this year, and the first chapter will happen on Christmas Day when the 2011-12 basketball season begins.
The last time the Celtics and Knicks played on Christmas at Madison Square Garden, which is also the site of this year's game, New York beat the 1986 Celtics in double overtime. It was quite an accomplishment for the Knicks because that Celtics team was the best NBA squad ever and it was Patrick Ewing's first big win as a pro.
The rivalry was revived a bit last season when the Knicks and Celtics played on March 26, the first meeting between the two teams in the Carmelo Anthony-Amare Stoudemire era.
It was an amazing game that was very physical, and the Celtics ultimately won, 96-86. It was a prelude of things to come and the excitement that was just getting started in a new era of the famous Boston-New York rivalry.
With the Celtics still an elite team despite some aging players, the Knicks must show they are ready to knock them off their perch in the division.
New York was unable to do that in the playoffs as Boston swept it, including two hard-fought games in Boston.
These are two physical teams that will display a style of basketball that is fun, high-scoring and intense, much like in the 1980s when these teams fought some epic battles.
Unfortunately there haven't been many great rivalries in the NBA since the late 1990s when the Knicks and Miami Heat had some great regular season and playoff battles.
The league needs a big time rivalry not just for now, but for the future. The media- and Nike-driven rivalry of LeBron James and Kobe Bryant is not anything special; there's no rivalry there.
I'm talking about bad blood and teams hating each other, with players willing to throw elbows and get physical.
The Knicks and Celtics will take their exciting games from last season and take them to another level this season.
The league needs the Knicks to be good, and they will be this season. Their best rivalry will be with the Celtics, not the Heat, and not the Chicago Bulls.
On Christmas Day, a new era of the rivalry will begin, and the Knicks and Celtics will lead off the new NBA season in style.
