Boston's return to the top table revives a special rivalry

DERBY DAYS 2008 NBA FINALS:After an absence of 21 years, the teams which gripped the imagination of the sporting public are set to battle again for basketball's great prize

ALTHOUGH THEY are almost 3,000 miles apart, no two basketball teams are more closely intertwined than the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics.

This season marks the 11th time in NBA history the Lakers and Celtics have been the last teams standing at the end of a long season - and the East Coast side have by far the greater record, winning eight of those 10 meetings.

The first of those Boston victories, in 1959, was actually against the Minneapolis Lakers (hence the nickname, the Minnesota city is known as the City of Lakes). The Lakers' franchise, which had originated in Detroit in 1946, before moving to Minneapolis the following season, was relocated to Los Angeles in 1960.

Success followed, but unfortunately for the California team an NBA side from the other side of the US was embarking on its most successful era. The Celtics hold the record for the most NBA Championships, and 11 of those 16 titles were claimed between 1957 and 1969, including another NBA record, eight crowns in a row, from 1959.

Seven times during those first 11 Boston victories the Lakers provided the opposition in the finals. The rivalry was thus built on the back of total dominance by one side. Those wins were huge victories for the East Coast over the West, and for the old traditions of working-class Boston over the blow-ins of glitzy Los Angeles.

After the 1969 final basketball's most fabled match-up didn't occur again in the finals until 1984, but they would then clash on three occasions in the deciding games of the following four seasons. By then, the NBA had grown from being financially unstable and poorly attended to being a giant of American sport - thanks in no small way to those earlier meetings between the Lakers and the Celtics.

The 1980s saw either the Lakers or the Celtics (or both) in the finals every year, bar one, with the Lakers winning five titles and the Celtics three.

Above all other factors, however, two men contributed most to making the meetings between the sides among the most anticipated sporting events in America.

In 1979, Earvin "Magic" Johnson and Michigan State University defeated Larry Bird and Indiana State in the NCAA Championship game watched by a remarkable 38 per cent of all TV viewers that night in America.

Five years later, two of the greatest athletes to pick up a basketball would meet again: this time Bird would be leading the Boston Celtics and Johnson would be the star of the Los Angeles Lakers.

Naturally, the best-of-seven series went to the final game, when, with the Lakers behind by three with one minute remaining, Magic lost the ball. Bird had his revenge, but the biggest winner was the NBA, with national, and international, interest in the game now at an all-time high.

The Celtics were now eight for eight against the California side in the World Championship Series.The teams met again in the 1985 finals, when the team from Massachusetts won the first game 148-114 in what became known as the Memorial Day Massacre.

The Lakers responded, however, taking three of the next four meetings to visit Boston Garden with a 3-2 lead. The 111-100 victory gave the Lakers their first NBA finals victory over the Celtics, and was the first time an opposing team had claimed an NBA championship in Boston.

"This trophy removes the most odious sentence in the English language," said Lakers owner Jerry Buss during the post-match celebrations. "It can never be said again that, 'the Lakers have never beaten the Celtics'."

The Celtics defeated the Houston Rockets in the finals the following season before the 1987 finals set up another match-up between LA and Boston - the last time they would meet in the finals before tomorrow's game.

While Bird was MVP after the 1984 finals, Magic would claim the 1987 award, along with the championship, the Lakers beating the Celtics 4-2. The series turned on some magic from Magic in the final seconds of Game Four in Boston.

The teams are competing for the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy, named after the former commissioner of the NBA, who was the son of Irish immigrants (from Co Cork, apparently).

For the sports media, traders in sports merchandise and the NBA, Christmas has come early. It's a dream final, and America is hooked again.

For all the recent rivalry between the San Antonio Spurs and the Lakers, it just wasn't the same, and didn't capture the public attention in the way the old powers of Celtics and Lakers can. And have.

In their regular-season games, at the end of last year, the Celtics won both games, home and away - but that will mean little tomorrow night in Boston.

The stars have changed since the 1980s meetings - All-Star shooting guard Kobe Bryant will lead the Lakers (Shaquille O'Neal left for the Miami Heat in 2004), while recent acquisition, and 2004 MVP, Kevin Garnett will lead the Celtics challenge (incredibly, the 6ft 11in power forward was only secured from the Minnesota Timberwolves in exchange for five players, two draft picks and cash).

The deal has helped lift the Celtics back to within touching distance of a title they last won in 1986. Tomorrow night, a new chapter in the history of the Celtics v the Lakers begins. It could well take over two weeks to write.