The Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics meeting in the NBA Finals has always been among the best of the league’s great rivalry moments, but it has been some time since both ball clubs were conceivably good enough for both to get back to the Association’s promised land.
With the Celtics the last undefeated team in the league at 5-0 and the Lakers seen as a potential dark horse to make the finals after a major overhaul of the roster during the team’s 2023 offseason, such a postseason collision is conceivably back on the table. And in an exclusive interview with the Celtics Wire, former Lakers champion guard Derek Fisher shared he’s rooting for such a matchup to take shape once again.
Asked if he thought a Celtics-Lakers final was on the table, Fisher shared that he “hopes so.”
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“I think the NBA could use it,” he said. “The individual storylines are great.
“I don’t think talent is the question in the league anymore. But people are really looking for genuine rivalries. Sportsmanship is cool, but NBA fans do want to see some dislike, and they want to see guys that are making the amount of money that these guys are making really appear at least to care more about the winning part than the money part. And rivalries are how that starts to live itself out.”
“You don’t necessarily want to always see guys hugging it out after the game,” Fisher added.
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— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) November 5, 2023
“But when you think about the Warriors-Kings kind of thing starting to bubble and develop because of the playoff matchup, I just think that the league would benefit from a Laker-Celtics finals matchup again, while definitely not being surprised if two other teams make it to the finals,” said the Lakers titlist.
“I think that the league is really top-heavy in some sets, but you also have four to five teams in each conference that could break through every year. You think the Miami Heat are done, they figure out a way to get to the finals.”
“Obviously the Bucks are a real threat,” said Fisher. “I think the Sixers are going to be better than people think they are, and then the Celtics are right there. And then in the West — imagine all of those teams are healthy. Imagine what that looks like.”
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— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) November 5, 2023
Biased as we may be toward any scenario that gets the Celtics back to the NBA Finals, we tend to agree with Fisher for all the reasons he notes. Such a matchup would indeed be good for the league in terms of storyline, history, ratings, and for most of us reading this — bragging rights.
With both ball clubs knotted up at 17 titles each, having them go at one another to decide who reigns supreme in the history books is certainly no scenario we’d be hoping to avoid.
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— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) November 5, 2023
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