Discussing “Celtics/Lakers: Best of Enemies”
Co-authored by Danny Emerman and Christian Rivas
“Magic and Larry saved the NBA. The Celtics-Lakers rivalry saved the NBA,” HBO’s Bryant Gumbel said.
The latest installment of ESPN’s critically acclaimed 30 for 30 series, Celtics/Lakers: Best of Enemies, a monster three-part documentary highlighting the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers rivalry from the 1960’s to present day, did not disappoint.
From Red Auerbach’s sideline cigars, racism in each city, and the Bird/Magic personal rivalry to the invention of the fast break, Kevin McHale’s Bill Walton impression and Converse commercials, the documentary hits every possible beat.
The dueling narration appropriately represents the stark dichotomy between the two major cities on opposite coasts. Donnie Wahlberg’s “gahden” juxtaposes with Ice Cube’s epic history lessons. In his Boston Globe review, Chad Finn describes Wahlberg and Cube as “welcome voices” who occasionally drift into hyperbole.
It is the perfect time to make this five hour, three-part film. So many of the notable characters — Larry Bird, Danny Ainge, Kevin McHale, James Worthy, David Stern, Byron Scott, Jerry West — are not only alive and well, but also prevalent in today’s NBA society as executives, coaches, or TV analysts. Not only that, but this film comes days after the 2017 Finals wrapped up, in which the Warriors were widely accepted as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, team ever assembled. Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain, and Bill Russell probably have something to say about that.
Oh, and the 2017 Warriors aren’t the first “Super Team.” Not even close. The ’84 Lakers had five All-Stars, including two MVP’s (Magic, Kareem, McAdoo, Worthy, and Wilkes) and Michael Cooper, a Defensive Player of the Year. The ’86 Celtics also had five All-Stars and two MVP’s (Bird, Johnson, McHale, Parish, and Walton).
If today is the Golden Age of Basketball, a period of an abundance of superstars and the three-point revolution, then Bird and Magic’s 1980’s was the Platinum Age and Bill Russell’s era was the Stone Age.
Through the lenses of contemporary LA and Boston fans, Sixteen’s Lakers Beat Reporter Christian Rivas and I discussed the wide range of topics the 30 for 30 presented. Here is our unfiltered conversation:
Danny Emerman: I loved the doc. It was one of my favorite 30 for 30s. But do you think sports fans from cities other than Boston or LA enjoyed it as much as us?
Christian Rivas: I do. I think the star power on both teams made it easy for people to enjoy it without being from LA or Boston.
DE: Generally I agree, but I doubt a random fan from Minnesota or Sacramento would watch it in the same capacity as us. I doubt they watched all FIVE HOURS of the film.
CR: You’re telling me that a casual fan doesn’t want to hear Gerald Henderson talk about a steal he made in Game 2 of the 1984 Finals? I find that extremely hard to believe!
DE: You make a good point. The interviews were freaking awesome. I’d say the All-Star interview subjects were Cedric Maxwell (definitely), Byron Scott and Kevin McHale (unreal Bill Walton impression).
CR: It’s unfortunate Byron Scott was such a terrible coach. He was a really talented player and I didn’t fully understand that until I watched this documentary.
DE: Completely agree. I didn’t realize how great/explosive of a player he was. This doc is littered with great players who turned out to be crappy coaches: Scott, McHale, Rambis…
CR: In their defense, how many Hall of Fame players actually turned out to be decent coaches? Jason Kidd, I guess?
Editor’s Note: Byron Scott and Kurt Rambis are not in the Hall of Fame.
DE: I mean, Rick Carlisle played. I’m lukewarm on Doc Rivers, but he’s certainly at least decent. Pat Riley and Phil Jackson. Those guys weren’t really hall of fame players, though.
CR: Speaking of Pat Riley, how cool was that guy? Too cool to be a coach, right? I can’t think of a coach since Riley that had that much swagger to him.
DE: When it comes to swag on the sideline, he’s clearly the GOAT. You read some articles about him, most recently Wright Thompson’s , and you realize just how much of a bad-ass he is.
CR: I think this documentary did a fantastic job of highlighting just how different these two teams were at the time. The Showtime Lakers were as Hollywood as a team gets and Boston was, well … Boston.
DE: The word is gritty, Christian. Boston was…gritty.
Blue-collar, lunch pails, working-class.
All the code words.
And while the cities were both so different, they both struggled with massive racism problems. The film focused more on Boston’s bussing and inherent racism, but there was certainly real problems in L.A. with police brutality and gang violence.
CR: Yeah, obviously racial tensions in the 1980's weren’t the best, but I had no idea they were that bad. Especially when it came to the storylines leading up to the Finals in ’84. “White vs Black.” How crazy is that?
DE: Insane. It was crazy that all black people, even in Boston, rooted for the Lakers because the Celtics were “white.” That really struck me.
CR: What impact do you think that had on the players? I know Magic had commented on some of the obscenities shouted at him at the airport in Boston, but I seriously doubt it was just a playful “Larry’s gonna kill you, Magic!”
DE: It definitely played a factor. Those crowds in the Garden the players called the “best fans in the world” were so vicious and clearly racist. I want to move on from the race subject because I’m definitely not qualified to speak intelligently about it, but Boston was a much worse place back then than it is now.
CR: Agreed. The contrast in the documentary went far beyond just the teams though. They had Ice Cube and Donnie Wahlberg narrating!
DE: They were awesome! Wahlberg’s accent felt a little forced at times, but it was pretty cool.
CR: If you’re doing a documentary on the 2000's rivalry 20 years from now, who would you want representing Boston?
DE: That’s a great question. Probably someone like Matt Damon. Gronk would be amazing. What about you?
CR: While it would be interesting to hear a 100-year-old Jack Nicholson talk about being courtside, I think I’m going to go with Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
DE: Interesting choice.
Low key Christopher Mintz-Plasse (the guy who plays McLovin) is a huge Celts fan. He’s always courtside. His narration would be electric.
CR: Or an Affleck-Damon tag team narration. Although, I feel like Ben would somehow make it about Tom Brady being the GOAT.
DE: Let’s move on to a more serious note. Let’s get into a little legacy talk
Everyone knows Jerry West as “The Logo,” but what really is his standing as an all-time great? Is he even realistically in the discussion as Greatest Laker Ever? As an outsider, Mr. Clutch just seems like a ridiculous nickname. He lost all six of his Finals matchups with Boston and went 1–8 overall in the Finals. In #Ringz culture, we crucify LeBron for his Finals record, and he still has 3 championships.
CR: I think I have to agree with you here. Jerry West was great ball player, but his name is just going to keep plummeting down the ranks as time goes on.
You can make a strong argument that there are at least 10 point guards in the league currently that are better than Jerry West was.
I also don’t think Jerry belongs in the discussion for greatest Laker of all time.
For me, Magic Johnson and Kobe Bryant share that title, and rightfully so. Both of them accomplished so much with the team.
DE: I haven’t had many Jerry West conversations, but that’s still surprising to hear from a Lakers fan.
You can make a strong argument that there are at least 10 point guards in the league currently that are better than Jerry West was. -Christian Rivas
CR: Magic had his faults too, though. I had no idea he choked in back-to-back games on the world’s biggest stage? Can you believe the kind of hate LeBron would get if he did that today?
DE: There are a ton of similarities between Magic and LeBron. They both ran their coach out of town. They both basically coached their teams from the court. They both faced criticism for shying away from the moment. And they definitely have similar games — awesome combination of physical tools and scoring/passing dominance.
CR: Magic Johnson was so good. I know you hear stories of his dominance, but watching that documentary really put things into perspective for me. The same could be said of Larry Bird. He was unreal. It’s like he could get any shot he wanted.
DE: Both of them were unbelievable. And the clips in the documentary were crazy. I hadn’t even seen a lot of the plays.
It’s hard to not have Magic and Larry in your all-time top 5, but they’ve arguably already been caught by LeBron (and maybe Duncan).
I don’t really want to talk about all-time lists, that’s so played out and arbitrary. But Magic and Larry were GREATS.
CR: Absolutely. What else can you say you took away from the documentary?
DE: I connected a lot of the 80’s era to today. Obviously all this Super Team talk is ridiculous. But the game was so different then. It was straight up violent at times. In Game 5 last week, Tristan Thompson and David West kissed and it was the biggest “fight” of the playoffs. Compare that to 1984 or 1986.
CR: The thing that blew my mind was seeing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar angry. That would be like Kawhi Leonard blowing his lid in the middle of the game.
And when I say “blow his lid,” I mean quite literally blow his lid. Because he’s a robot.
DE: Exactly. I was actually just going to compare Kawhi to Kareem!
At one point, Jamaal Wilkes said: “It was a real quandary for the league. Kareem was the face of the league, and he didn’t want to talk.”
Sound familiar?
CR: I think that speaks volumes to just how intense those games were. I mean, how many rivalries do we have in the NBA today that can hold a finger to the Lakers/Celtics rivalry of old?
I personally don’t even think the Cavs and the Warriors qualify.
DE: The answer is 0. No rivalry is even come close.
And the Magic/Larry personal rivalry is probably the greatest player rivalry in any team sport ever.
This has been a great and cohesive conversation. Let’s close it out with this thought: The Celtics and Lakers are picking 1 and 2 in the upcoming draft. Could we be on the verge of the start of another iteration of the rivalry?
CR: I sure hope so. The oldest rivalry in sports has lost it’s loving feeling. So much that the kids on the team have very little appreciation for it, at least on the Lakers’ side.
It’s set up to be a perfect rivalry though. Assuming the Celtics take Markelle Fultz and the Lakers take Lonzo Ball, those two are going to be linked at the hip for the rest of their careers.
DE: Maybe this documentary helped that a little. On ESPN’s The Jump, Paul Pierce predicted the Celtics and Lakers will meet in the Finals again in the next ten years. I see it.
CR: The year is 2020. Markelle Fultz calls an ISO with 14.2 seconds left on the clock in Game 7 of the NBA Finals against Lonzo Ball’s Lakers.
You also have the Jaylen Brown/Brandon Ingram debate that I didn’t know existed until I stumbled upon a thread on Twitter a few weeks ago.
The stage is set, they just have to make good on it.
