The addition of Elton Brand has many Philadelphia 76er fans excited about the 2008-09 basketball season. Many of those fans are particularly excited about renewing the rivalry with their once hated nemesis, the Boston Celtics.
Celtics fans can certainly understand the excitement that comes with making a big off-season addition, but let’s not get too crazy about a renewed Celtics-Sixers rivalry just yet.
Last June we heard a lot of talk about the Lakers-Celtics rivalry in the 1980s. True, those two teams battled it out in three NBA Finals. But the purple and green only played each other twice during the regular season, and weren’t even rivals in the same conference, much less the same division.
Contrast that with the Celtics-Sixers rivalry of the 1980s.
They played each other four times in the Eastern Conference Finals between 1979 and 1985, and that was after battling it out all year long for the Atlantic Division crown and the best record in the Eastern Conference and the best record in basketball. As members of the same division, the Celtics and Sixers faced off six times every year during the regular season alone.
These were battles of two Titans. This wasn’t blue-collar, lunch-pale workers v. Showtime. This was Sparta v. Athens. King Kong v. Godzilla. Jefferson v. Adams. Hagler v. Hearns.
In 1980, the Celtics ended the season with the best record in basketball, but Philadelphia beat them in the ECFs, quite easily in fact, winning four games to one. The next year the Celtics again finished with the best record in basketball. The ECFs looked like they would be a carbon copy of the year before, with Philadelphia bolting to a 3-games-to-1 lead. But Boston rallied to win the next three games on their way to championship number 14. It was considered the biggest collapse in playoff history since, well, the Sixers blew a 3-1 over Boston in the 1960s.
The following year the Celtics again finished with the best record in basketball. The Conference Finals found Boston and Philadelphia pitted against each other for the third straight year. The Sixers wasted no time going up 3-1 over Boston. The Celtics then rallied to win the next two games. No one could believe their eyes. Could it be? Would the Sixers collapse two straight years after building what appeared to be an insurmountable lead?
No.
There would be no collapse in 1982. The Sixers won game 7 in Boston 120-106.
The 1982-83 season will always be remembered as the season of Moses Malone. The Sixers acquired Malone in the off-season, and Philadelphia cruised to the best record in the NBA during the regular season, and then only lost one game in the playoffs, barely missing out on fulfilling Malone’s prediction of three series sweeps.
Although the Celtics and Sixers didn’t face each other in the 1983 NBA playoffs, the following season was prefaced with one of the most memorable games in the history of either team, and, for that matter, in the history of the NBA. And it came in a mere exhibition game. The full story can be found here, but long-story short, the game witnessed two bench clearing brawls in the first five minutes, and before it was all over, Red Auerbach had come out of the stands to challenge Moses Malone to a fight.
“I wasn’t going to allow them to intimidate us in our building,” Auerbach later said.
I guess Red wasn’t too happy about the Sixers' success the season before. Oh, and by the way, the Celtics went on to win tow out of the next three NBA titles, and the Celtics-Sixers rivalry slowly faded into the sunset.
Even this brief history doesn't do justice to the rivalry. No mention is made of Russell-Chamberlain. No mention is made of Andrew Toney, the Boston Strangler, or Dennis Johnson, who was acquired in large part to neutralize Toney. No mention is made of the Larry Bird-Julius Erving tussle when the two NBA ambassadors came to near blows after Bird saw fit to taunt Erving with a single phrase he kept repeating over and over.
"42-5."
It seems that in the final seconds of that game, Larry thought Julius should know that Bird had tallied 42 points for the night while Erving had managed only 5.
So, my friends in Philadelphia, let's not get too worked up with talk about a renewed Celtics-Sixers rivalry.
Us old folks saw the rivalry at its peak, and the chances of recreating it and sustaining it over a similar period of time are pretty close to nil.
Celtics fans can certainly understand the excitement that comes with making a big off-season addition, but let’s not get too crazy about a renewed Celtics-Sixers rivalry just yet.
Last June we heard a lot of talk about the Lakers-Celtics rivalry in the 1980s. True, those two teams battled it out in three NBA Finals. But the purple and green only played each other twice during the regular season, and weren’t even rivals in the same conference, much less the same division.
Contrast that with the Celtics-Sixers rivalry of the 1980s.
They played each other four times in the Eastern Conference Finals between 1979 and 1985, and that was after battling it out all year long for the Atlantic Division crown and the best record in the Eastern Conference and the best record in basketball. As members of the same division, the Celtics and Sixers faced off six times every year during the regular season alone.
These were battles of two Titans. This wasn’t blue-collar, lunch-pale workers v. Showtime. This was Sparta v. Athens. King Kong v. Godzilla. Jefferson v. Adams. Hagler v. Hearns.
In 1980, the Celtics ended the season with the best record in basketball, but Philadelphia beat them in the ECFs, quite easily in fact, winning four games to one. The next year the Celtics again finished with the best record in basketball. The ECFs looked like they would be a carbon copy of the year before, with Philadelphia bolting to a 3-games-to-1 lead. But Boston rallied to win the next three games on their way to championship number 14. It was considered the biggest collapse in playoff history since, well, the Sixers blew a 3-1 over Boston in the 1960s.
The following year the Celtics again finished with the best record in basketball. The Conference Finals found Boston and Philadelphia pitted against each other for the third straight year. The Sixers wasted no time going up 3-1 over Boston. The Celtics then rallied to win the next two games. No one could believe their eyes. Could it be? Would the Sixers collapse two straight years after building what appeared to be an insurmountable lead?
No.
There would be no collapse in 1982. The Sixers won game 7 in Boston 120-106.
The 1982-83 season will always be remembered as the season of Moses Malone. The Sixers acquired Malone in the off-season, and Philadelphia cruised to the best record in the NBA during the regular season, and then only lost one game in the playoffs, barely missing out on fulfilling Malone’s prediction of three series sweeps.
Although the Celtics and Sixers didn’t face each other in the 1983 NBA playoffs, the following season was prefaced with one of the most memorable games in the history of either team, and, for that matter, in the history of the NBA. And it came in a mere exhibition game. The full story can be found here, but long-story short, the game witnessed two bench clearing brawls in the first five minutes, and before it was all over, Red Auerbach had come out of the stands to challenge Moses Malone to a fight.
“I wasn’t going to allow them to intimidate us in our building,” Auerbach later said.
I guess Red wasn’t too happy about the Sixers' success the season before. Oh, and by the way, the Celtics went on to win tow out of the next three NBA titles, and the Celtics-Sixers rivalry slowly faded into the sunset.
Even this brief history doesn't do justice to the rivalry. No mention is made of Russell-Chamberlain. No mention is made of Andrew Toney, the Boston Strangler, or Dennis Johnson, who was acquired in large part to neutralize Toney. No mention is made of the Larry Bird-Julius Erving tussle when the two NBA ambassadors came to near blows after Bird saw fit to taunt Erving with a single phrase he kept repeating over and over.
"42-5."
It seems that in the final seconds of that game, Larry thought Julius should know that Bird had tallied 42 points for the night while Erving had managed only 5.
So, my friends in Philadelphia, let's not get too worked up with talk about a renewed Celtics-Sixers rivalry.
Us old folks saw the rivalry at its peak, and the chances of recreating it and sustaining it over a similar period of time are pretty close to nil.
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