Legends, Icons, and Contemporary Showdowns
Every sports fan loves a good rivalry. Whether it’s the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics, the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees or Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers, every league has its intense rivalries. However, many of those rivalries are built upon rivalries between great players, especially in the NBA.
Epic NBA Rivalries of Bird vs Magic and Chamberlain vs Russell
We’re going to go through and rank some of the greatest rivalries between players in NBA history. This list is impossible to start without one of the greatest rivalries in the history of sports. Larry Bird and Magic Johnson came into the NBA around the same time and immediately there was tension between the two. However, the rivalry started before either ever set foot on an NBA court.
Johnson’s Michigan State team defeated Bird’s Indiana team in the most-watched college basketball game ever at that point. Explore the NBA news and rumors surrounding these legendary players and their enduring impact on the sport.
The rivalry immediately carried over to the NBA as Johnson went to the Lakers and Bird went to the Celtics. The two teams had already established a heated rivalry in previous years. Bird and Johnson had many great battles over the years but the Lakers star likely came out on top in the end. Johnson won five championships while Bird only won three. Despite their heated rivalry of the 80s, the two are now friends.
It seems that the previous greatest rivalry of all time also involved a former Celtic and former Laker. Before Johnson and Bird, there was Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell. Chamberlain is one of the greatest statistical players of all time but only won two titles. Russell’s stats aren’t as gaudy but won a whopping 11 championships, which is a record that will almost certainly never be beaten. Russell and Chamberlain against each other 143 times combined in the regular season and the playoffs.
Two legendary greats that will forever be connected together:Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell.#Warriors #Celtics #76ers #NBA #Legends #HOF pic.twitter.com/SQZ3Ljvjkh
— Sports-Cards-Photos (@SportsTradingC4) June 8, 2023
Almost every decade had an iconic rivalry and the 90s were no different. Michael Jordan is widely considered the greatest player of all time. If it weren’t for him, Isiah Thomas may have more championships. Unlike Bird and Johnson, Jordan and Thomas hated each other in the 90s and still hate each other now. The Chicago Bulls knocked Thomas’ Detroit Pistons out of the playoffs for three straight years from 1988 to 1990. Thomas actually had a winning record against Jordan but not when it mattered most. Odds are that these two won’t be reconciling anytime soon.
The Shaq-Kobe Rivalry
The rivalry that developed between Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant is one of the most fascinating. The two formed arguably the greatest NBA duo of all time during their time together on the Los Angeles Lakers. They won three straight championships together and were borderline unstoppable. That was until the 2004 NBA Finals loss to the Detroit Pistons led to the two breaking up.
It was clear that they didn’t like each other and O’Neal was traded to the Miami Heat. Kobe got the last laugh as he won two championships away from O’Neal while the Hall of Fame big man only won one. According to NBA news, the two were able to reconcile eventually and had a very close friendship before Kobe’s untimely death in 2020.
To finish the list, we have a more contemporary rivalry. Though LeBron James and Steph Curry have been quite friendly with each other in recent years, it wasn’t always that way. Curry may be the reason that LeBron isn’t considered the greatest of all time over Jordan right now. LeBron and Curry battled in the NBA Finals for four straight seasons from 2015 to 2018.
The Golden State Warriors were able to win three of those matchups. LeBron has had the most recent triumphs as the Lakers knocked the Warriors out of the playoffs this season but the rivalry isn’t nearly as intense these days. Regardless, their previous battles will go down in NBA history as some of the best.
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