Rebuilding the Lakers and Celtics….
Good luck.
As the announcers say, It’s Always Special When These Two Teams Meet—at least, if one hasn’t fallen off the world, as the Celtics had in 2007 when Laker fans got “MVP!” chants going for Kobe Bryant in the Derek Jeter Center or FleetCenter or whatever they called it then.
It’s still special going into Thursday night’s game in the—uh, TD Banknorth Garden–even if both are old and they’re trying to gum each other to death.
If all NBA fans hate one of them and an overwhelming majority hates both, their prosperity and the NBA’s have gone hand-in-hand since their early dynasties, the one in Minneapolis that led the pros out of the dueling-hayseed-circuits era, and the one in Boston brought the league its first glimpse of prominence.
The great expectations, which kept them great over the years, die hard, making rebuilding all the harder.
Thus Celtic GM Danny Ainge now muses about missing an opportunity to cash in one or all of his Big Three, when he could get something for them.
Thus Laker GM Mitch Kupchak could dream of landing not only Chris Paul, but Dwight Howard.
Unfortunately for Ainge, no one was going to give him a good young player for a great old one, as when Golden State turned down Ray Allen for Monta Ellis.
Having come with Allen, 36, Kevin Garnett, 35 and Paul Pierce, 34, the Celtics will have to go with them, with only Rajon Rondo to build around when they’re gone. (Unless they trade Rondo first).
Unfortunately for Kupchak, the times were a-changing from those when glamour teams shook little ones like piggy banks.
Neither of these teams would ever had a dynasty if Red Auerbach couldn’t hornswoggle the Rochester Royals into trading him Bill Russell by sending over owner Walter Brown’s money-making ice show, or if Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant hadn’t set their hearts on becoming Lakers.
If the new labor deal’s small-market, owner-friendly rules are being phased in, the owner of the New Orleans Hornets had already been cashed out… leaving them in the hands of Commissioner David Stern, who rejected GM Dell Demps’ deal that would have sent Paul to the Lakers.
For the maraschino cherry atop the sundae of the Lakers’ misery, Stern, who was up to his neck in criticism, was obliged to OK a better deal for Paul, who got to Los Angeles after all!
Just with the Clippers.
Now, with Eric Gordon fruitlessly negotiating for an extension after playing two games in New Orleans; Chris Kaman such a dud, Demps announced they would no longer play him until they found a taker, before reversing himself (presumably after a call from New York); Al-Farouq Aminu on the bench and the Hornets’ Minnesota No. 1 pick looking like it will drop into the teens, you can’t say the deal did much for the Hornets’ value.
But, as the Lakers say, that’s all water under the dam, which just got bombed by B-52.
They still have two (2) All-Star seven-footers to trade, but find themselves all but out of the running for Howard and Deron Williams, whose desire to go to their next destination as a package makes teams who have the cap room (Nets) or may be able to create it (Mavericks) the frontrunners.
Having gone through Plans CP3 and D12, the Lakers may be down to Plan N, as in “N-n-n-o one?”
Before this, it was as if the basketball gods protected this rivalry because they got such a kick out of it.
Together they were box office dynamite, the more so after 1984 when the Lakers, trailing 8-0 in Finals matchups, started playing the Celtics on equal terms.
How amazing was this?
With Magic Johnson and Larry Bird coming off their 1979 NCAA Finals showdown, the highest-rated basketball game ever, the gods dropped Johnson into the lap of one of these bitter rivals, and Bird into the lap of the other?
Their teams made it to all 10 Finals in the ‘80s, the NBA’s Golden Age, meeting in three: 1984 when the Celtics pulled it out after trailing in the last minute of Games 1-4, and 1985 and 1987 when the Lakers arose to slay their tormentors.
If that looked like the end—imagine the odds on both falling, rising and finding the other on the same schedule–the Celtics’ decline from 1993-2007 seemed to doom the rivalry to the scrapheap of NBA history.
In 15 seasons, the Celtics made the playoffs six times, got past the first round in three and never got out of the East.
By the 2006-07 season when they went 24-58, they were down to hoping to hit it big in the lottery.
Instead, Portland drew the No. 1 pick, which meant Greg Oden, and Seattle drew No. 2 and Kevin Durant.
With the second-worst record, the Celtics dropped to No. 5.
Ainge and Coach Doc Rivers, watching the draw, sagged in their chairs on camera.
That summer, amid the ruins of the Lakers’ post-Shaquille O’Neal rebuilding program, Bryant lashed out at everyone from owner Jerry Buss down, demanded to be traded and cut off communications, refusing to even tell them if he would report in fall.
Proving there was still some magic left, the Lakers and Celtics got from those low points to the 2008 Finals.
Even without home-court advantage, the Lakers were favored after tripping blithely through the West draw at 12-3, while the Celtics went 12-8 in knock-down drag-out series with the Hawks, Cavaliers and Pistons.
Just as in days of yore, the Celtics won, 4-2.
Two springs later in 2010, the Celtics, given up for dead after sliding to No. 4 in the East, made an even more improbable run to the Finals, and took an even more improbable 3-2 lead.
In one of the great Finals finishes, the Lakers won Game 6, then came from 13 points behind in the third quarter and won Game 7, with Bryant going 6-for-24 from the floor.
Weren’t those the days?
It’s not a good idea to write either team off. The playoffs have always belonged to veteran teams, and may again after this 66-game, 123-day exercise.
In the meantime, with the teams meeting tonight on TNT, we can only live with the hope of seeing them, or anything as good, again.
Mark Heisler is a regular contributor to SheridanHoops, LakersNation and the Old Gray Lady. His columns and power rankings appear here each Wednesday. Follow him on Twitter.