1. Celtics- Lakers: The Boston Celtics. 17 NBA Championships. The Los Angeles Lakers. 16 NBA Championships. 33 World Championships between them in a league that is 65 years old. The two have combined for over half of the NBA’s Championships. 12 times the two teams have met in the NBA Finals. The Celtics have won nine of those. The Lakers, however, have won three of the last four.

In the 1960s the two team met six times, all of them won by Boston. If we count 1959, Boston was 7-0. 1959 was the only sweep. Three of the series went the full seven games, 1962, 1966 and 1969. The 1969 series was especially galling for the Lakers. The Celtics were aging, with Bill Russell and Sam Jones in their final season. The Celts limped into the playoffs with a four seed in the East. The Lakers with newly acquired Wilt Chamberlain and Jerry West led the Lakers to the best record in the league. The Lakers finally had the home court advantage over the Celtics. They won the first two games and looked to be on their way to that elusive first championship over Boston. However the Celtics fought back to forces a Game 7 at the Forum. Despite a guarantee from LA owner Jerry Buss that there would be a Laker celebration after the game, the Celtics won the game.

The Celtics won ever title in the 1960s except for 1967 when Wilt’s 76ers beat Boston in the East Finals and went on to win the championship. Russell vs. Wilt was as big of a rivalry as there was in all of sports. It was a huge part of Celtics Sixers and then it was Celtics Lakers. After Russell and Jones retired as champions, the Knicks took over in the East for a few years. They beat the Lakers in 1970. However, the Lakers beat them in 1972, giving West his only ring. The Cowens, Silas, White Celtics won the title in 1974 and 1976, neither against the Lakers.

However, in 1979, a new Wilt vs. Russell type rivalry was in its infancy. Magic vs Bird met in the Championship Game of the NCAA Tournament. Magic’s Michigan State Spartans beat Bird’s Indiana State Sycamores 75-64 for the title. The next year, 1980, Magic went to the Lakers and Bird to the Celtics. Every season in the 80s had either the Lakers or the Celtics in the Finals. Three times it had both.

The Lakers won the title in 1980, behind the rookie Magic Johnson who stepped in to play center with the injured Abdul-Jabbar out in the decisive Game 6 win over the 76ers. The following year, the Bird-led Celtics came back from a 3-1 deficit to knock Philly out in the Eastern Conference Finals and then dispatched the Rockets in the Finals. The following year, the Celtics again found themselves down 3-1 in the Eastern Finals against Philly. Again they forced a Game 7 in the Garden. This time however, Philly showed up. Late in their blowout win, Celtics fans chanted “Beat L.A., Beat L.A.” to one of their most bitter rivals.

The Lakers and Celtics met in the Finals in 1984, with Boston yet again winning a Game 7. The two met again in 1985, but this time the Lakers finally won against their arch nemesis. The Celtics won the title in 1986, but it was the Rockets again on the losing end. In ’87 however, with the Celtics’ first round draft pick Len Bias dying of an overdose a couple of days after the draft, and several players playing hurt in the late season, the Lakers proved too much for the fast aging Celtics.

The two would not meet again in the Finals until 2008 with the Garnett, Allen and Pierce led Celtics beating the Kobe, Gasol and Odom Lakers. The Lakers got even two years later in a classic Game 7 win over Boston, the first time the Lakers ever beat Boston in a Game 7. The Lakers Celtics rivalry may not only be the best in basketball, but possibly the best in all of sports.