Page 34 - Sports Illustrated Kids (October 2018)

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?H>L scorching Jerry West, The 1977–78
season was
rough. For
who was an
It’s a rare year when All-Star in each the only
time in his
of his 14
neither the Celtics seasons, lost 20-season
nor the Lakers are Hall of six times career,
Famer John
an elite team. They’ve Havlicek in the Finals Kareem
combined to make won six titles to Boston. He Abdul-
63 conference finals fire in the 1960s. finally got a Jabbar
appearances. And it’s He added ring in 1972, wasn’t
an All-
pretty common for two more, when the Star. And the
Lakers—who
both of them to be in 1974 and were coached Celtics lost
’76—when the
among the league’s Lakers were by former 50 games
best. They have met 12 in a period Celtics star Bill for the first
times in the Finals. With mild of decline. Sharman—beat time in their
nine victories in those the Knicks. history.
matchups, the Celtics
hold the head-to-head
lead—at least for now. 1960 1970 1980

7>KH BL : A>KH
don’t like him. I just plain warmups Russell
Tatum started 80
don’t like him. And he knows gruffly told West,
games and was
it.” At one point Schaus and “Those balloons named to the
Auerbach were seated next to are staying up.” All-Rookie first
team last
each other for more than an They did. Boston
season.
hour—and they never even won 108–106. The aging
said hello. Celtics hadn’t even been
The Lakers won the favored to win their
Western Conference six times conference. “Sixty-nine
in the 1960s behind Hall of was the year we were

Famers Jerry West and Elgin supposed to get there
Baylor. And each time, they instead of Boston,”
lost in the Finals to Boston, said Phil Jackson, then
which had Bill Russell, the a member of the New
dominant big man of his day. York Knicks and later a
(In Game 7 of the 1962 Finals, Hall of Fame coach. DICK RAPHAEL/NBAE/GETTY IMAGES (WEST); FOCUS ON SPORT/GETTY IMAGES (HAVLICEK, ABDUL-JABBAR, BIRD AND JOHNSON); GREG NELSON (TATUM)
Russell scored 30 points and “But the Celtics found a way. flamboyant Lakers attack, which was
had 40 rebounds.) They always found a way.” dubbed Showtime. And Bird was the
The teams’ last meeting of toughest player on a hard-nosed
the decade came in the 1969 *:@B<:E MBF>L Boston team. “You know how it went
Finals. Game 7 was in Los The next great era in the Celtics- back then,” Kurt Rambis, a Lakers
Angeles, and the Lakers’ Lakers rivalry was ushered in by two forward, remembered in 2015. “We
owner ordered hundreds of men who joined the league in 1979: were run-and-gun, highlights, and
balloons with world Boston’s Larry Bird and Magic flash. The Celtics were all work,
champion lakers printed Johnson of Los Angeles. plodders, and tougher than us. That
on them and put them in a net When they arrived on the scene, wasn’t exactly true, but that’s what
above the court, ready to flow the NBA was struggling. In 1980 the people believed.”
down to celebrate a long- Finals weren’t even shown on live Johnson and Bird were the two
awaited title. During television. But Johnson led a most captivating players of their day,

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